The Chronicles of Nightshade
by Belladonna The Narrator
Summary: Belle gets sorted into Slytherin due to her wild goals, bad childhood and vengeful attitude, a result of her parents insanity and abandonment, unlike her publicly adored, privately scorned twin. WGWL, smart, powerful, not godlike gray!fem!Harry. Includes soul bonds, elementals, beast tamers, otherworldly summons, classification of magic-users, creature inheritance etc Read ch 1 A/N
1. Chapter 1 The birth of Nightshade

**Hello guys! So this is my first fanfiction inspired from various fanfictions I read on this site, most of those have been added in my favourites. There are elements of similarity with few fanfictions in the start and it shall remain so for a while, but the story will completely diverge in the later chapters. Also the updates may not be frequent, but I will guarentee that this story wil be completed.**

**A/N: I don't own Harry Potter, though I own the story and all its unique elements.**

**A/N 2: Posting this to clarify the full summary, as the space in the description was not enough. Belladonna is the abandoned and unfavoured second child of the House of Potter. She was thought to be a squib and left with her relatives by a not-so-sane James, and Peter. Sirius Black was not dumped in Azkaban and Lily was declared clinically insane. She learns how to survive her circumstances, with smiling face and hidden thorns, the perfect example of the nightshade plant she was named after, meanwhile creating and operating an underworld organisation from scratch with her not-so-accidental-magic before she receives her Hogwarts letter, with a clear aim for the said organisation in her mind. The revelation of magical world throws her entire life into a disarray. So how will she face this new world where she is not welcome by her own parents? Will she take vengeance against her father for abandoning her, resulting in her abyssimal childhood? What are her reasons behind operating an underworld organisation? Read further to find out... **

**Enjoy the chapter...**

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**The birth of Belladonna the nightshade**

**31st October 1981**

It was a windy evening, with Halloween decor all over the apparently modest sized village, Godric's Hollow. Everyone was celebrating the all Hallows eve, except for a select few houses, which ware all but invisible to those who knew nothing about them. These houses included "the refugee," as named by one Albus Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of British Wizengamont, Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, Honourable Headmaster of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. Despite knowing its general location, the house was inaccessible to anyone who knew not the secret, such was the way of Fidelius charm or so thought Mr. and Mrs. Potter, living in their refugee from the ongoing wizard war to protect their daughters, Camilla and Belladonna from the attempts of murder by a mad man, the perpetrator of this senseless violence. As it was a holiday, their little belle was getting dressed while their little flower was all set for the festival when they heard the opening of the gate, inviting their favourite godfathers to their very private halloween party, or so they thought. Little did they know that their happy lives were going to end that night, leaving their little angels to fend off for themselves for a long while.

"Such foolishness, that's the reason it's never prudent to believe in anyone," thought Lord Voldemort, entering the house to put an end to his so called "vanquisher." Seeing James Potter without a wand in his hand, he considered letting him live, he was after all a pureblood lord, but ultimately decided against it as the potters were Dumbledore's through and through. "But, let it not be said that Lord Voldemort has no mercy," he thought to himself while using his version of blasting curse, resulting in a collision with the wall. Noting that the annoying idiot will live if brought to immediate medical attention, he checked where the kids are. The prophecy, he might not have heard it in its entirety, but he knew that someone with power to undermine his existence shall be born. the thought itself was ludicrous; He, Lord Voldemort, who wished to take magic to previously unreached heights, would be killed, and that too by a snot-nosed brat? End the noble cause they were fighting for? He would never let that happen, and the best enemy is always a dead enemy. With these thoughts, he further looked in the house. Hearing the hurried scuttling of Lily Potter, the mudblood wife of James Potter, from the upper floors, he climbed the stairs to find a nursery, messy in every way as though someone ransacked the place. Probably did so too, he thought, thinking of what he knew of Lily Potter. Lily Potter nee Evans, a muggle-born. Member of the Order of Phoenix established by Dumbledore and was extremely skilled with a wand, more so than her husband who was an Auror. As much as it pained him, he had to admit that she was truly vicious when need arises, of course she never used the killing curse but she always fought his people with the intent to kill, not incapacitate, like the other people of Dumb-as-a-Door, and was leading a research among the unspeakables, according to his faithful agents in the department of mysteries. Dare he admit it to himself, the children of a pureblood and a mudblood, both with excellent prowess as wizards. He never considered himself as a wizard, he was a mage first and foremost with his skills in wandless magic, though he lost the ability long ago due to the countless rituals he performed upon himself to increase his power levels. Entering the nursery, he found the girl begging him to spare his daughters, and take her life instead. He thought of the promise he made his faithful spy, the promise he made to him for his continued allegience and finally decided that the girl was snivelling too much and put her to sleep with a parseltongue curse, she won't wake up unless another parselmouth uses the spell, such was the greatness of the serpentine language. He did not notice her wrists slit open and bleeding with runes carved in them. Neither did he notice the minor glamour on the foreheads of the two girls. Pointing his wand towards one of those little brats, the one with eyes the same colour of his favourite curse; he did not know their name; he immediately uttered the killing curse, but before the curse could do what it was supposed to do, the curse was dissolved and turned him into ashes. Fleeing the house as a disembodied spirit, his last coherent though was to have had killed that brat with a cutting curse, rather than the killing curse.

Fidelius charm is one of the very few charms which breaks upon the incapacitation of any one of the secrets, that is death or disposal of the secret results in the breaking of the charm, making it very useful against murderers like this. So, the loss of consciousness of James and Lily resulted in the dispelling of the charm and allowed the headmaster and everyone who knew of the refugee yet were unable to enter regain their knowledge. Thus, Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster extrordinaire of Hogwarts, came to check the house out and noted that James was on the verge of death and Lily was cursed asleep with a parseltongue spell, as he was unable to wake her with any of the countercurses he knew for the general sleeping and nightmare curses. He noted that one of the girls, the redheaded one, had a scar of the shape of teiwaz and algiz, implying sacrifice and protection, in an angry red as though someone carved it on her head with a hot knife. Immediately calling the healers from St. Mungo's, he transported his favourite students to the hospital, hoping that they might wake up soon enough to take care of the kids. In his haste, he did not notice the sig rune on the other one's head in the same location, same red but pulsing with energy.

Sirius Orion Black, also known as Padfoot and the Godfather of Belladonna, on regaining the knowledge of the refugee's address, immediately understood that they were betrayed by a rat known as Peter Pettigrew, the true secret keeper of the potters. He immediately set out to the Godric's hollow and met Dumbledore, and tried to explain him that Peter was the secret keeper only to physically be incapable of doing so. "Damn you Peter, That was the reason for that twisted oath to be included as a marauder's secret as well?" he thought, unable to come up with any solution to inform the headmaster the true identity of the secret keeper, as he was physically bound by the oath, preventing anyone who was not a marauder from knowing who the true secret keeper was. He hated to admit it to himself, but the rat's idea was a good safety net for himself. The marauder's secrets as they were defined, were secrets stored in a contract, using Black family magic, that was his contribution, and only the oath holder can allow the secrets out, similar functioning to that of a fidelius. In fact, he was quite sure that the fidelius charm was inspired from the black family magic just like many other modern magical innovations. Like it or not, his family _was _ancient and on its way to be most ancient, so they had a good spell repertoire, outclassd only by the most ancient houses like Peverell, Grimm, Emrys, Le Fey, Nightshade and few other families lost to onslaught of time.

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**1st November, 1981**

Dumbledore, in all his intelligence, immediately called for a Wizengamont meeting, with Sirius, Remus and Peter, the other three marauders, as the ones responsible for the Potters' current predicament, knowing that one of them is the secret keeper of the Potters. An immediate veritaserum questioning and several hours yielding no result, it was decided that the three marauders shall be given benefit of doubt till James or Lily wake up and the custody of children to Dumbledore. He returned to the hospital to check on his students and their children. According to the prophecy, he knew that one of the girls was responsible for the disappearance of Voldemort, though he did not know who as both the scars had magical residue. Noting that James was awake and speaking to Sirius, who was the first among the marauders to arrive, he went to check the status of the kids, only to hear devastating news that Belladonna was tested to be a squib, losing all her magic that night. James Potter was in denial, yelling at the healers and mediwitches and Sirius was busy controlling him. For once, the situation is quite opposite, observed the headmaster, usually it was Sirius who lost his composure and James who was the mature one. "No daughter of mine can be a squib!"

"Please maintain your composure Lord Potter, this is a hospital!"

"I want the secret keeper arrested immediately, Sirius. He is responsible for this! Tell me who the secret keeper is! I know that you are the oathkeeper of that detail, not me. So spill!"

"James, you and Lily hold the identity of secretkeeper together, so stop asking me to reveal it. Get your bearings together and either wait till Lils wakes up or I can make you the oathkeeper if she does not wake up by tomorrow. That's how the contract works and you would know that if you have studied every clause in detail. So stop making a commotion!"

He immediately went to the healers to ask what was wrong with James, as his student rarely lost composure these days. "We are sorry headmaster, but Lord Potter is perfectly healthy according to the scans we performed just a while ago, except for a mild shock in his brain. We cannot say the impacts of this wound as mind is a sensitive part of the body and can only hope that he will heal well," was their response. "James, get a hold of yourself, she is your daughter, does it matter if she does not have magic?" yelled Sirius, unable to see his brother in all but blood lose it so badly and start blaming Belladonna for his current situation. His entire behaviour was insane. Rounding up on Sirius, he all but shouted, "You! You are her godfather! The reason she lost her magic! You were our oathkeeper. You are the reason all this happened!" Albus, choosing that he heard enough, asked the healers whether his words are reliable, only to know that James lost control on his thought process, so he will have many angry and out of control episodes, and is technically not fit enough to care for children, and might never become alright. Heartbroken, he decided against James meeting his children in his situation, and only hoped that the man can be healed as soon as it was possible. He also checked the status of Lily and got to know that she might need a parseltongue spell to regain consciousness, and even then, she might not be the way she was before this incident.

In a way of placating James, he decided to search foe a parselmouth, and asked for help among all of his acquaintances, pulling old favours to get help. Finally, he found that the answer was with James' friend Peter Petrigrew of all the people, that kid knew someone who had the details and asked him to heal Lily and James, if he can. Despite his scepticism, he decided to trust Peter as he was always with him from the day the fidelius was cast, so he had a solid alibi. Also, he gave an oath to the headmaster that he was not the secret keeper chosen by James, so it was satisfactory for him.

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**8th November, 1981**

The following week saw many reforms, with James regaining the custody of his daughters, Lily forgetting almost everything about her past and reverting to having the mind of a toddler (as though she was obliviated), the attack on Longbottoms, Sirius losing his best friend and his job at the auror office because of false testification, yet he did not get arrested as Lord Potter was unable to provide any credible proof against him and the attestation from healers regarding his sanity, immediate round-up of all the accused death eaters and most of them escaping Azkaban with flimsy excuses of imperius, and providing 'donations' to the financially crippled ministry. "And they call my family mad..."thought Sirius, "they are the really mad ones, just because he has a good political situation now, his testification is true and will be taken into consideration despite his questionable sanity... And just because he was not from a dark family, Peter is allowed combined custody of his God daughter along with the Potters. I am sure there is a good donation in this situation, but my accusations will only place me in perilous situation... He is not insane like Sirius Black, cousin of Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black, who suffers from the black family madness after all... And Remus, heh, I don't even know where he is as of now... Left the place without a good-bye note..." He also lost the legal right to care for Belladonna, though it was accepted in Wizengamont that he will be allowed to visit her whenever he wished. After all, she was his god daughter and no one can deny him his right and duty towards her. Deciding that he will not ignore his responsibility towards his god daughter, despite his current dislike of his once-bestfriend, he went to James to meet his little Belle and hopefully flee England with her, away from James and Peter, especially Peter. If she was a squib, he would find a good muggle house and allow her to lead her life away from magic, even if it meant he won't be able to use magic again. Though he felt sorry for Lily, he knew that she most likely won't be leaving the ward for long term psychological damage, along with the Longbottoms and there was nothing he could do to help her, she was James' responsibility as his wife, not his.

"What do you mean by she is not with you?" Sirius all but yelled at James on hearing that his little Belle was dumped with Lily's 'very normal' sister Petunia. "Lils would be ashamed of what you are doing right now, Prongs, though she doesn't remember anything." Giving the grim animagus his utter disgust, "Don't call me that you traitor... You lost the right to do so the day you gave me up to You-Know-Who. I know you are the oathkeeper no matter what you did to make me forget it. You are not a marauder anymore Sirius Black. I, James Charlus Potter, as the leader disown Sirius Orion Black from the marauders' oath," retorted James, doing so resulted in magic herself not recognising him as a marauder anymore, as his security features never took insanity into account, it did not require sanity checks, only free will. Sirius immediately felt a sharp pain in his heart, indicating that he was indeed not a marauder anymore and lost direct access to half of the marauder secrets (he was the co-leader, so he held half of the secrets with him) though he did not lose the knowledge that Peter was the secret keeper, he became incapable to speak of it to Remus as well, whom he was trying to contact even now; even when the oath was redundant as it was a marauder's secret and from the looks of it, James forgot who the true secret keeper was and lost all his marbles, easily manipulated by Peter, who was behind James waving towards him conspiringly, just like the rat he was, vividly reminding him of his harridan of his dead mother and his cousin dearest. He decided not to speak to them unless James regains his sanity or he finds a way to undo the oath, though he knew that the only possible solution needs a higher tier magic than the secrecy ritual he used in the marauder's oath. That would include family magic with stronger language than Latin like Mayan runic language or parseltongue, both of which are inherent, along with some other magical skills, you either know them or you don't.

"James, I don't care about that right now, you will tell me where my god daughter is unless you want the wrath of a Black upon you. I have an obligation towards her as her bonded godfather, you daft moron!" Towards the end of the conversation, Sirius had to restrain himself from using the very colourful curses he knew form the black library though he let himself lose with swear words that would make a sailor blush. With no positive result towards the end of the conversation, he left the place, not before giving James one last warning. "Do as you see fit James, I will find Belladonna and pray that she is in a good situation the day I do find her. Do not forget that she is a Black as well, her grandmother and her blood adopted father is a Black, if she is a witch after this ordeal, she will never forget this. She might forgive you if she had a happy life but never forget this. Also pray that she had a happy life, if not, I shall hold you responsible for this forever. You do not want to face the wrath of a Black kept away from his family."

It would take Sirius another ten years to actually find Belladonna due to the intricacy of the charms woven on her, rendering it impossible for anyone with magic to find her, and another week to actually meet her. He never found a solution to undo the oath forced upon him, thereby allowing Peter to roam free for ten entire years. And despite leaving James with that warning, he never expected it to hold true word by word. Neither did he expect his sweet little Belle appear as Belladonna of the Nightshade when he next met her.

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**That's it for now folks... There are few inconsistencies, which I will try to remedy as the story progresses further.**

**Edited on 3/11/20**

**Added A/N on 3/22**


	2. Chapter 2 I am a witch

**I am A Witch?**

**21st July 1991, Stockwell Orphanage, London**

"A pleasant summer morning," thought Belladonna, "If the day continues like this I will be able to go to the library without any trouble from the matron... The Nightshade has quite some work to do too. Need to include some other clauses in the agreement form to be given to Eagle and check the monetary obligations towards those 'Richey Rich' idiots." Never did she expect the day to turn her entire life upside down, the story of a modern Cinderella.

Belladonna never believed in fairytales, she was strictly of the opinion that you make your own miracle, you dig your own grave, a very practical approach she had to adapt in light of her 'unfavourable' living conditions. As an orphan left in the care of her 'hard working' relatives by her 'dead', 'no good' parents who killed themselves in a car crash high on drugs and left her on their doorstep to darken their 'perfect' house, she was overworked, underfed, beaten, bullied and abused in every way possible physically and mentally, after which she decided that she will not give them the satisfaction of getting to her and retaliated, slowly but certainly and escaped her personal hell with many smart plans, one overwriting the other which would have put any seven year old to shame. She took intense pride in her planning capabilities and making use of what minimum resources she had, especially in her escape from those 'relatives' , and landing in this orphanage. Though it was never her home, it was better than her live as a slave at the Durseleys' and it gave a better practice in manipulating people.

Her grand plan was to earn enough money to begin a start up in the field of pharmaceutics, directly against the giants. Knowing this, she ensured to collect a variety of information on different kinds of antidotes, poisons, hallucinogens and vaccines produced by the very same companies she was against. If someone asks her how she accomplished that, she gets all mysterious. Also threatening with poisonous reptiles helps a lot, she long noticed that she had an affinity to them, she can speak to snakes, lizards, alligators, crocodiles and almost all reptiles. That was not the only unusual thing associated with her, she can float things, push them away without any contact though it made her extremely tired to do so, so unless desperate she never did that. She was unable to explain this with any science she knew till now, so she attributed it to one of the reasons the Durseleys hated was her true secret behind her escape from Durseleys' though she would never admit to it, after all as long as you don't get caught when you are naughty, you are not naughty. It is as simple as that.

So lost in her thoughts that she did not notice the matron closing in on her room, from the window she made with her 'freaky powers' as her relatives might have described it. So she was startled when Mrs. Wilson entered her room without knocking. "You have a guest Belle," barked the lady and left without closing the door. "That was impolite," she thought and waited for the guest, going through the possible guests Belladonna might have and came up with a blank, she specifically cleared her day today for the Nightshade business. Waiting in her room for her so called guest, she opened her favourite book, The Art of War, the tactics will be quite helpful when she will establish her business; though she actually loved books written by Shakespeare as well, especially books on aristocracy like The Hamlet, Macbeth, they help with public behaviour; and started reading. Before she can go to the next page, her guest showed himself into the room. Putting her book aside, debating who this guy looking like Gandalf might be, she decided to make the first move to speak. "Hello sir, I'm Belladonna. Who might you be?" she questioned politely, it was after all necessary to have manners.

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Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was shocked. Scratch that, he felt as though someone avada'd him when he saw the address on the envelope of one of the students. It said, "Belladonna Potter, The room beside the staircase, Stockwell Orphanage, London." He reminded himself of what James told him about his squib daughter, that she was sent to live with Lily's sister as she was a muggle, of course with his advice, it was indeed a good idea to isolate the twins to prevent any unreasonable behaviour that might occur with one twin being the saviour of the country while the other being a Pariah without magic and it would make it easy for little Belle to integrate with the muggles where she will have to live the rest of her life. What shocked him was the address, he wouldn't have minded if the address was the Durseley residence, hell, he was hoping the child had magic himself but James ensured no one who is not a Potter can find her with a blood ward, thereby preventing him and Sirius, the girl's god father, from meeting her. Now, Sirius was another disappointment, he hoped that upon becoming Lord Black he will gain another couple of votes from the seat, and a supporting hand to his reforms, but Sirius had to ally himself with the Neutral and sometimes with the Dark faction, rarely did he support Dumbledore. Though that might be due to the fallout with James, he thought. He still did not understand the Lord Black's behaviour, in his opinion, Sirius was the secret keeper of the Potters as he never acted amiably with him after his fallout with James, indicating he is a Black through and through. Wasn't that his reason behind the current stance towards magic- total integration of muggleborns from the moment they showed any signs of magic and removal and obliviation of the information from their parents if they are not open-minded enough and abusive towards the children; like parents and caretakers ever are abusive towards children, that never happens in his opinion; improvement of creature laws to allow them freedom of movement, re establishing the pagan rites, and so on. All of them ensure that the muggleborns flee this world, definitely undoing his hardwork in the past sixty years.

Forgetting Sirius, he immediately set out to meet James, and inform him of his younger daughter gaining a seat in Hogwarts. He felt like being punched in the gut when James Potter, father of girl-who-lived refused to meet his second daughter, stating that her Hogwarts letter is more than likely a fluke and he could care less about her address being an orphanage. He decided to deal with the child first, and then he will have words with her relatives after asking the Muggle Liasion office about them.

So, here he was, dressed in robes that looked totally out of place in London, at the entrance of the said orphanage. The place needs a thorough cleaning and renovation, he thought morbidly watching the worn out paint of the building. The talk with the matron was informative and ringing alarm bells in his mind. Apparently, Belladonna's relatives were killed in a fire accident, due to gas explosion. She escaped only because she was in the garden at the time of accident, to check on the flowers, though he did not understand what a seven year child might be doing in the garden midsummer afternoon.

Deciding to get to know her better, he asked the matron, Mrs. Wilson, he reminded himself, about the said child. She immediately clammed up, "Why Mr. Dumbledore, there are many other girls you can adopt, I would not suggest her, she is an angel but very shy and does not fit well with new people," with a glazed look on her face. It was highly suspicious so he used a bit of legilimency to check why she was so closed off this lady was, only to note that there were no associated feelings. Sending some of his magic into her, long term compulsions, he noted clinically and was startled to find a mildly scared expression on her face. "Very weird, that girl, always studies books on science and philosophy, other kids don't like her but never was there any quarrel, except the one time when Andy and Jim tore her books open, we of course punished them for that, but they never spoke to her again, and whenever they she talks to them... Well that's not how bullies behave I'd suppose... I'm sorry, I'm losing myself, well, here we are..." and went in the room to presumably introduce him. He was busy thinking who was it with enough magic to compel this woman to prevent Belladonna's adoption when the door opened and he went in to find a rare sight, a little girl reading a book as thick as an inch. He was quite startled to look at her face, she had very few Potter traits, the aristocratic jaw line and nose were totally Black family traits. Her hair was a glossy black and fell on her shoulders in soft curls, again totally different from James' messy hair and Lily's auburn waves . The only trait she and Lily shared was the eye colour, a deep emerald green... No, that colour is not the same as Lily, hers is a soft sea green. He would have easily believed this girl as Sirius' daughter with all those facial features. He was brought out of his musings when she politely introduced herself, with manners that would not have been out of place on a pureblood heir. For some unknown reason, this entire situation was ringing alarm bells in his mind, though he had no idea what it was. Deciding to ponder on his thoughts later, he introduced himself.

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"Hello Miss Potter, I am Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of the school you have an acceptance letter to and hopefully you will attend. First, does anything weird happen around you when you are stressed?" asked the Gandalf look alike, no, that won't do, Mr, Dumbledore. Her mind was reeling with rapid fire questions, "First of all this guy knows my surname, which I never mentioned in the orphanage, so he most certainly knows me from before Durseleys. Second, he does not look like a teacher, let alone a headmaster and last, how does he know about the 'freaky' things?" Deciding on a safe response, "Mr. Dumbledore then, before I answer any of your questions, may I know more about this school? I do not know if it has all the subjects I wish to take... Also, what do you mean by weird things?" with a mild amount of curiosity in her face that would not have looked out of place on someone who knows nothing about her "special" abilities.

"Finally, no more alarm bells" thought Dumbledore and decided to answer her question, it was a common question asked by many muggleborn students, just not with the same unfalliable manners. "To answer both of your questions, Hogwarts is a premiere school which accepts only the best students, so yes, it has all the important subjects, but most certainly not the ones you are asking me of..." he trailed off, only to be interrupted by the child.

"Forgive me for my interruption, Headmaster, I never mentioned what I wish to study, did I? So how can you be certain that this school-"

"Hogwarts"

"- Hogwarts, won't have the subjects I intend to study?"

"That pertains to my answer to your earlier question, you are a witch"

"Witch, as in..."

"Witches and wizards are the ones capable of doing magic, I am a wizard and you are a witch. You should have noticed small impossible things happen around you when you are in distress or very happy, apparently when you are emotional... They are explained by magic. Your parents are one, and so are you."

"My parents...?" asked the girl. Never was she told anything good about her parents by the Durseleys, so she was indeed hungry for information on them. Seeing that look, Dumbledore sighed to himself, "Did Petunia not tell her anything about her parents?" and resigned himself to answer her questions.

* * *

Belladonna was in a shock. She just got to know that she was a witch, the 'freaky' stuff she makes happen was known as magic, her parents were alive, one of them was in a coma while the other one (the insane one, she had to remind herself) decided that she was apparently a squib and decided to place her with those relatives. Her telekinetic capabilities (magic, it is magic, not telekinesis) wished to lash out and break and burn everything to cinders, she had to control them by taking deep breaths, she knew it usually works as that was the only way she can protect herself at the Durseleys. The Durseley episode, however short and unlikeable it might have been in her life, was a significant part in moulding her character but definitely 'endeared' her "Father" to her. Also, she had a twin who was famous for the disappearance of a Dark Lord, known as Voldemort, who also put her mother to sleep with something known as a 'parseltongue' spell, whatever the term meant. Also, this Gandalf look alike in front of her suggested her 'relatives' as a safe place for a child to reside. Her father did not want to meet her today because he considered her acceptance at Hogwarts as a fluke and she still did not have any magic. And she had a God Father who was unable to locate her due to a spell placed by her 'father' on her, though Dumb-as-a-door indicated that this godfather might be the reason her father is currently crazy, though her experiments with human psychology indicate her to not directly believe whatever information heard from an unreliable second hand source and this here was certainly unreliable. Well, it's not like she has no knowledge on psychology, she read many books on the topic, especially on acquired charecterestics, quite a fun thing to do to those annoying bullies, use few snakes to scare them into submission and make them forget the incident, without treating the trauma. That ensured their obedience, incidents might be forgotten but the associated trauma is not unless treated, a fine example to that statement.

All in all, this magic business put a damper on her nightshade business, as she won't be able to return to London during Christmas holidays(No way is she missing magical Christmas or any holidays for that matter), and also on her 'enterpreneur' idea too... She had to confirm whether it is okay to work in the normal (Muggle, cough cough...) world, because of the five minute long lecture on something called the statute of secrecy, which she was not inclined to ask this headmaster. She had no inclination to give more data than needed to someone who considered her a 'baggage' to the so called 'girl-who-lived', she can read books and news thank you very much. But, first she had to know why she was considered a squib and how much power an eleven year old should possess. She had a feeling it was not common to have the control that she had on her powers, the only question being whether she had to ask Dumbledore or can she gather the information on her own. So she asked him about different kinds of magic, from which she gathered that it was necessary to use a wand for any kind of magic, and wandless magic was the sign of an extremely strong wizard. That meant it was definitely not common to burn things when mad and even rare to do so on will. "Well, That's really good to know... "she thought to herself thinking about the Durseleys. She politely refused his assistance to help her shopping things for her school, though she did not refuse any instructions. Apparently, she had to go to a pub called Leaky Cauldron, that was the entrance to a 'Diagon Alley' or something, go to the wizarding bank, called grignots, where she should have a trust valut, from which she can collect her money buy her supplies, mentioned on the list addressed to her letter. After that she had to finish her deal with Eagle and 'bring him on the board,' as people say. Statute of secrecy be damned, she was not giving up her business, only modifying it heavily to suit her purposes. She had to check if magical world had any competition regarding the same, and try to establish a monopoly there too. Beginning everything from the scratch it is, then. A dip in both the pies will ensure that she can survive in either world, as she knew it is always safe to have a back up plan in case of failure of one.

So, she decided to thank the old man for his assistance and send him on his way. Then go to Diagon alley and check the situation of the magical world, and if possible meet her godfather (only in a controlled scenario, she had no intention to get killed, thank you very much) and then attend to her muggle business. Also, prepare for the lessons, no way will she be known as a dunce when every one of her teachers now call her genius (perks of excellent memory), and cultural upheaval she was certain she will have to face (who wears dress robes these days except for costume parties and Halloween?). With these thoughts in her mind, she absentmindedly dismissed him and rejected his suggestion to go meet her 'daddy dearest,' she had so many things to do... and so little time, so no time to waste on the ravings of a mad man.

Albus Dumbledore found her blank face quite unnerving, he might have understood if she raged, broke everything in the vicinity and so on. But he noted that her magic was leashed tightly, her eyes were glowing mildly, not out of place on an angry witch, but no accidental magic. It was shocking to see a child, who was thought to be a squib, show such control on her magic. This time the alarm bells returned with twice the intensity and immediately made sense to him, that extremely polite facade,(yes, it was just that, a mask to fool others, not her true nature), those manners (she definitely learnt them from books), the scared kids (wasn't that a shocker now, she definitely scared them into submission), and that unnatural control over her magic (no ordinary child had that amount of control, only frequent usage can improve magic)indicating her accidental magic has developed to wandless magic, her polite yet firm refusal to his help(independent, or she does not trust others easily), reminded him of a younger Tom Riddle with a better control over his masks. He did not know how to deal with a child who reminded him of his greatest failure, so he decided not to antagonise her right off the bat, and gain her trust slowly, to show her the 'right' way. Little did he know that his suggestion to place her at the Durseleys already sealed his fate, no, she will never trust this old man without back up plans and/or proofs, so all his endearing behaviour was noted by the girl and decided that she reminded him of something he did not like, implying she had to be careful in dealing with him.


	3. Chapter 3 Diagon alley

**Here's chapter three... Enjoy**

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**Diagon Alley, Here I come!**

After Albus-too-many-names-Dumbledore left the orphanage, she went to the matron and told her with a mild 'suggestion' that she will be leaving the orphanage to purchase her supplies for a boarding school she got admission into and that was what the old man from before came here for.

Reaching the said address, Belladonna looked around and found the pub very annoying with all the people (eww... is that a frog?) and their lack of concern towards cleanliness. She might have lived in a worn down orphanage, but she always kept her room clean. It was a matter of pride to her that her room was the only one clean enough to be presentable. So imagine her annoyance when the pub owner came to her and asked, "Muggleborn dearie?," she had to physically reign in her powers(magic, she reminded herself), and request him to show the way to Diagon Alley instead of ordering him. The trick with those bricks was very handy (Fascinating even, so magical, not that she will ever admit that to others), preventing any ignorant muggles from wandering into their world (my world as well, she thought to herself). She immediately went to the wizarding bank, just as the headmaster informed her, she found it at the end of the street, an all white, tall building with warning written upon it in bold words. Like anyone will get caught if they actually have to steal, she scoffed on reading the warning, she knew that humans are fickle, so no matter what, thieves always exist, only their numbers and capabilities differ. From the poem, it was most likely that any theft from this bank needs extreme skill, implying this was a bank for elite(so I am elite here, not the poor little orphan without manners and anyone to teach her). So she was surprised when a human like creature came to her (what is that creature?) and asked her what her business was. She introduced herself politely yet firmly, just the way she knew no nonsense people liked (well, almost all the bankers are no nonsense people), and asked about whether or not she had any money in the bank. The creature (Goblin Griphook, she had to remind herself) immediately asked her for her identity proof. She did not know what to do, so she grit her teeth (damn you, Dumbles, you should have explained this beforehand instead of those wizarding wars, they can be read but manners cannot be read, they are learnt) and asked how to prove her identity. They immediately brought a bowl and ordered her to put a drop of blood in it to prove that she was Belladonna Potter. If it turned out that she was not who she claimed to be, she will be dealt with, informed the goblin with a nasty sneer on its face; she had no intention to find out what the meaning of 'dealt with' was.

After proving her identity, she was taken to her trust valut and informed that money was withdrawn from this valut for five years to pay someone called 'Durseleys'; this pissed her off enough to lose all control over her magic and caused the gold in her valut to shake violently. It took her few deep breaths to regain her control, though her outburst earned a healthy amount of respect and fear in the goblin. The goblin asked her in a shaky voice whether to prevent anyone else's access to her valut, to which she responded in the positive. She decided to get to know about the customs followed from a neutral point of view and asked the goblin (Griphook, should remember the name) about the wizarding history and different kinds of magics. Fed up with her incessant questioning, Griphook told her where she can find uncensored information. "Knockturn alley is where you can find answers to all your questions, it has all the books on censored topics, though a word of advice, do not go there in your current attire..."

"Why do you say so, Mr. Griphook?"

"Drop the Mr., it's teller Griphook. You have strong magic and some respect towards us so I give this information for free. Knockturn is a place for dark magic, so only purebloods roam there without anyone taking an unsavoury interest in them. Any more information requires payment, that is how the Goblin Nation works. Now, do you wish to have a new set of keys created for your valut, seeing that the universal keys have multiple copies?"

"Yes, please." Replied Belladonna, thinking of the way purebloods acted based on her observations, all aristocratic and most of the language following the 'codes of conduct for knights' in one of the stories she read about King Arthur. Though the fact that there is prejudice in this world did not escape her notice, telling her that no matter what the situation is, the innate nature if humans always remains the same, they always have an ugly side to them. That means, no matter what, wizards or muggles, it is possible to manipulate them to her whims if she can find what exactly ticks them.

"That will cost you five galleons, should we take the cut from your trust valut?"

"Please do so. Also can you explain me the wizarding currency? You see, I was muggle raised so I know very little about this world..." she trailed off, hoping the goblin to respond her positively. He mildly scoffed at her and told her to read the muggleborn guides which were supposed to be handed to her during her introduction to the wizarding world (Another failure if Dumbledore, this list does not seem to have an end) and is found easily in any of the bookstores in Diagon. After handing a mokeskin pouch (never ending and directly connected to the valut, for a fee of course) and explaining her the equivalent of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts in pounds, a quick calculation told her that she was quite rich, her trust valut had at least a hundred thousand galleons, refilled to the same amount till she reaches her majority once a year, one galleon equals to five pounds on a good day and four pounds on a bad day (reminds me of stock market), thereby making her a proud millionaire. All her school fees shall be paid for by this valut, and that includes the supplies cost too. The supplies did not cost more than two hundred galleons even if she spent extravagantly, but she felt annoyed to have to carry all of that currency and asked if their bank provides any credit card like system. The facility costed her twenty gallons per year, a hefty sum but worth it in her opinion. So she collected three hundred galleons and left the bank to continue her shopping.

"Robes first, my dress is not appealing anyone here, I don't intend to look like an eyesore below the poverty line," she thought to herself and went to Madam Malkins' robes. She noted that there were many customers that day, mostly because it was a Sunday and Hogwarts opens in a month. While waiting for her turn, she came across a chubby boy who looked as though he was scared of his own shadow, with an old lady wearing a hat with a stuffed vulture. She noted that the lady was glaring daggers at her, deciding that she had enough glaring from an old lady, she spoke to the kid, "Good day, I'm Belladonna Potter, Who are you? Are you excited for Hogwarts as well?" in a polite manner with a smile she knew always endears her to the kids and the adults. As she expected, the old lady stopped glaring her but now eyed her with an extreme curiosity, as though she was an exquisite specimen in a zoo. The boy introduced himself as Neville Longbottom, heir to the Most Noble and Ancient house of Longbottom. She had no idea what that meant so she filed it away for later consideration. She made small talk with Neville and got to know that Neville was also assumed to be a squib till his letter arrived and was very much interested in Herbology, something to do with plants. She had no idea what he was speaking of, so she only gave polite nods where ever necessary and waited for her turn. Before departing, she was introduced to his grandmother, Lady Augusta Longbottom, who told her that her parents were good friends of Neville's and to be a good friend of Neville.

"That was strange, I am sure there is more to the Longbottoms than what catches the eye," she thought to herself after they left. She decided to buy a full wardrobe, both wizarding robes and muggle jeans and t shirts in neutral colours along with her Hogwarts school robes and winter clothes, along with one pair of formal duelling robes and traditional dress robes, all in some material called acromantula silk and dragon hide, adding that to her growing list of questions. The shop owner asked her to wait for another four hours to collect her orders, so she asked for one pair of daily wear robes right away and paid for those with the card, telling that she shall collect and pay for the rest once the delivery was done. Satisfied with her reflection which screamed 'royalty' to her, she left the shop, ignoring the looks of awe the shop owner was giving her on seeing her name in the card.

Her next stop was the book store. Seeing the number of books, she decided that she can stay in the book store for hours together should she get a chance. Resisting the temptation, after all she had to go to knockturn and meet up with Eagle, she asked the shopkeeper all the books a muggle-raised witch should purchase, along with few books on runes and arithmancy for spell crafting which was written in bold letters in the section and made her payment with her grignots card. She purchased the 'slytherin standard set' for potion ingredients, whatever that meant, from the apothecary. She also purchased two different types of cauldrons, brass and pewter, after a short discussion with the apothecary manager for corrosive and time taking potions, scales, cutting knives with silver edges of different sizes. She decided to do extra reading on potions as they reminded her of her passion, chemistry, biology and pharmaceutics. She purchased the telescope meant for astronomy, though she had to admit the muggle telescopes were a lot better than these, so she thought of buying one if the current one gets broken. She was not sure whether she wished to buy a familiar or not because she had no one to whom she would write, other than one person who was a muggle, neither did she have any wish to buy a cat or toad, as they are not remotely useful.

So with this dilemma, she entered the Magical Menagrie, to find her favourite animals, snakes, in the reptile section. Knowing that if anyone sees her using this skill she knew was not normal for witches and wizards (she just knew that from her discussion with Dumbledore, it was either beast-speak or serpent-speak, he never mentioned it was common for wizards to speak to animals) it won't bode well for her, she spoke to them in a very hushed hiss,

_"Greetingssss, reptilessss..."_

_"A ssspeaker..."_

_"Yessss, I am Belladonna. I want to take one of you asss my familiar... I can provide you enough food and a placcce to ssstay warm in wintersss... Ssso, anyone wissshes to come withhh me?" _she asked, just as she knew that they would understand her.

That resulted in a long discussion about beast-speakers, summoners, true names and many other terms she had no idea about. So she asked the snakes which one has the best knowledge on all the terms they were using and met her familiar, an azure horned serpent, who will not be giving her true name unless she proves herself worthy of it. When she asked what is it about true names, she was told that the explanation is time taking and will be given only if she upholds her end of promise and take her with her.

So, Belladonna left the store as a proud owner of an azure horned serpent, she decided to name her Atropa after the poisonous plant nightshade, which was also a part of her own name. She decided to have the discussion that evening and went to buy a trunk for herself.

Here, Atropa suggested her to buy an internally expandable trunk with password protection and have a duelling room, library, small sized home with kitchenette, potion lab for non explosive potions and ritual room with no energy interference, especially the ritual room, fitted in her trunk. Deciding that her familiar will not give unworthy suggestions, she decided to do as suggested. The entire cost totalled to four thousand galleons, especially because of the ritual room, and it would take at least two weeks before she can receive the trunk due to the work that needs to be done on the ritual room and the intricate warding. She warned Atropa "It better be worth it, or else..." and flared her magic to scare her, and just as she expected, she was assured that it will be very useful to her, and proceeded to explain about ritual magic, banned now a days due to the dangers associated but very helpful to understand magic. She felt mollified with that explanation.

After all her business in diagon was done except for a wand, she went to knockturn to buy books on so called 'unbiased view' on different kinds of magic. She purchased books on ritual magic, and uncensored dark arts, not the Dark Artes, as she was warned by her familiar not to use any artes till her second magical majority, though she had no idea what that meant. Hopefully her lack of knowledge would be remedied by reading these books. Also, she found a tome in weird language with the title "Parseltongue in Healing and Warding by Salazar Slytherin," she knew it was a weird language because the shop owner scolded her when she asked about the book that 'those illegible scribbles are not going to be useful to you in any way.' So she purchased that book as well, all her purchases totalling two hundred and forty three galleons, an astounding amount when she compared this sum to her purchases in Diagon. All the books there costed no more than a hundred galleons, and that too with the number of books there more than the those she bought here. Ending her shopping spree, she decided to buy a wand, which, in her opinion is the most interesting thing she has seen on Dumbledore's person. His wand had berry like bulges along its length and was humming wildly whenever he moved it, indicating it was acting as a conduit for his magic.

She entered the shop "Ollivander's - Makers of fine wands since 382 B.C." The bell gave a small jingle and the door opened. She went to the counter and was waiting for the shopkeeper impatiently, as she still had to deal with Eagle and give him a to-do list. So she was startled when an old man with pale, silvery eyes came to her from the behind and said, "Ah! Belladonna Potter... You look very little like your parents, though I guess you have your mother's eyes. You look very much like your grandmother, Dorea Black..."he trailed off, lost in his reminiscence.

"Good day sir... Can you fit me with a wand as soon as you can please, I have a lot of work to do after this..." she said hoping that he would start the work as soon as he can.

But the man did not seem to get her hint as he continued his rambling, "She did not buy her wand from this shop, I remember every wand I sold..."

"Uh... Okay, I suppose..."

"Your mother bought her first wand here...A wand made of willow and unicorn hair... Swishy, ten and a quarter inches long, suitable for charm work..."

He moved closer to her, she really wished to get out of this store, those eyes were creeping her out.

"Your father, on the other hand favoured a mahogany wand, with dragon heart string core, eleven inches, pliable. Extremely suitable for transfiguration and battlefield duelling..."

She wanted to ask the guy "Why the hell are you telling me this," "That man is most certainly not my father, he failed all his paternal duties towards me" but knew that it was not polite, but she had the impulse, which was strange as she never considered herself an emotional person. Neither was she impulsive, her stay at the Durseleys ensured that.

"Your sister purchased her first wand yesterday... Holly and phoenix feather, twelve and a half inches, nice and supple...Indeed she was destined for the wand... The same core as the one that gave her her scar... Yew and phoenix feather, that one, a great wand, yet the atrocities it committed...Though if looked carefully, you also have a scar...hmmm..."

"That scar is something I had as far as I could remember, but I don't think it matters here, does it?" she cut him off before he could make any assumptions, no, she did not need any additional scrutiny than the one she already has, she prefers her independence thank you very much.

"May be it doesn't ...May be it does..." said Ollivander mysteriously, "Now, which is your wand arm?" and started measuring her arm length, shoulder length and so on with a tape.

"I am naturally left-handed, though I am ambidextrous after a great deal of practice...I suppose that matters?"

"Yes, yes it does..." she heard from a distance and was shocked to see Ollivander inside his store. She did not understand how he slipped from her view so easily; Nightshade never lets anyone out of her view, that's what she was famous for, her impeccable observation skills; and was equally startled when the tape started taking measurements of her eyes, forehead, nose and so on.

She was brought out of her thoughts when he recalled the tape and brought a box with a wand "Right then Miss Potter, cedar and dragon heart string, twelve inches, rigid, just take it and give it a wave"

It had intricately carved flowers on the end facing her, though only those who try to notice it clearly can find any difference between this and an ordinary stick. She took the wand from his hand and confidently waved it, ensuring a little bit of her magic flow through the wand, despite feeling foolish on the inside and facing a small amount of resistance. Mr. Ollivander immediately snatched it out of her hand and gave her another one "Maple and unicorn hair, ten inches, swishy, try this..."

It felt like a very ordinary stick with one end fitted with a simple leaf like shape, maple, she thought to herself. No sooner she took the wand in her hand than he snatched it from her hands. She had to give it to him, the wand was feeling uncomfortable in her hands, so definitely she would face extreme resistance.

"No, no, Birch and phoenix feather, eleven and a half inches, quite whippy. Go on, try it out..."

She again channelled her magic and the wand was snatched before she can wave it. She understood that the wand needs to be compatible with her magic to yield the best results from her observations, though that one felt the best of all the wands she tried.

She was given wand after wand, and she tried all of them by consciously channelling a small amount of magic through them, and she did not find a single one compatible with her magic. The pile of boxes seemed to mount higher and higher on the counter, though from the wand maker's face, more the number of wands pulled from the shelves, happier he seemed to become.

After trying too many wands to count (and breaking equally high number of things in the shop with her magic), she was given a pale looking wand with a snake and bird shaped end, with the bird's feathers and the snake's coils entwining the wand, and red jewels for the eyes of the snake and green jewels for the bird, she was mesmerized by that wand, it felt as though the wand was calling to her magic and she had to catch herself before snatching the wand.

This did not go unnoticed by Ollivander, he looked at her keenly "You might be this wand's destined wielder...Yew and elder, eleven and a quarter inches, unyielding. Give it a try"

She took it into her hand, and her magic sang to her, she could feel it rushing into the wand and bright sparks of emerald and gold emitted from the tip. The feeling was unlike any other wand, as though a lost part of her was returned to her. Then and there she decided to take excellent care of her friend (scary, the only ones she considered her friends are the snakes she knew and may be Eagle, even he is only her acquaintance-may-be-friend, not a true friend), so she asked Ollivander about wand care and was the owner of a wand service kit and a wand holster.

In her excitement, she forgot to ask him about the core of the wand and the meaning of those red jewels (rubies, I think) at that moment.

"That would be twenty galleons, Miss Potter" said Ollivander after showing her how to use the holster and how to take care of her wand. She was immediately reminded that he did not specify the core of her wand, so she asked him the same.

"Yew wands are very notorious, Miss Potter, mainly due to the reputation that they are suitable for dark magic. Those are just that, rumours; but there is one fact about Yew wands-they never give their allegiance to a timid and powerless wizard, or witch. And once their allegiance is won, it is never lost, the statement 'till death do us part' holds true for yew wands. Likewise, elder wands give their allegiance to those who are fated enough to escape death..."

"And what is the core? What are those jewels? No other wand of yours used jewels...They only had similar carvings..."

"This wand was not made by me, it was crafted by my great grandfather and is one of the rarest dual core dual wood wand. It has a core of two opposites- phoenix feathers and the last seen basilisk's heartstring. To find proper balance between the two, emerald and ruby were used as focus stones. Also, what carvings are you talking about?"

"Don't all the wands have those carvings?"

"You are able to see the aspect of a wand..." Ollivander whispered to himself, looking at the girl with something similar to awe. Startled, she asked what he meant by aspect of the wand. He gave her a tome "This tome I shall gift you, Miss Potter. Hopefully you will be able to find the answer to your question, but one last suggestion, do not mention this talent of yours anywhere, it is just as notorious as parseltongue, or snake-speak as you call it-"

"How did you know that?" she interrupted him, she did not like the way he dissected her every action, it was something she usually did, never was she on the receiving end of that infernal talent.

"If you wished to hide that talent of yours, you should not have brought that horned serpent with you, but nevertheless, keep my warning in mind," he retorted sharply, "These talents are not looked in a positive light...Though I am looking forward to what you will be able to do in the world, the last known users of Yew wand and Elder wand did great things, some terrible, but great nonetheless."

"Who is the last known user of elder wand?"

"Albus Dumbledore, don't check for the berry like carvings on your wand, the elder wood is internally placed in your wand. But any further study of your wand, you can do it after reading the tome I gave you. It shall answer all your questions, I hope...Now if you are done..." He spoke to her again in an ethereal voice effectively ending their conversation.

She did not know what to think of Ollivander, so decided to have no opinion on him till their next meeting. She just knew that it was definitely not their last meeting and their paths shall cross again.

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**So, what do you think of the skills spoken by the snake? Yes, those are linked to the story closely, don't worry, there are few modifications to Hogwarts classes as well, so Belladonna won't be the only one with overpowered talents. **


	4. Chapter 4 The heart of a Nightshade

**A/N: Harry Potter belongs to the wonderful JK Rowling, I am only playing with it...**

**Updates will be once every two weeks, usually on saturday or sunday, after this chapter and if I have to take a break, I will mention it beforehand. Next update will be on March 21st 28th. Thanks for all the favs and follows.**

**Here is the story without any further delay...**

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**The heart of a Nightshade**

_She did not know what to think of Ollivander, so decided to have no opinion on him till their next meeting. She just knew that it was definitely not their last meeting and their paths shall cross again._

After leaving the diagon alley with all her supplies except a trunk, she decided to go to the library and wait there till evening as it was already beyond lunch. She had to redraft all her agreements with different agents of Nightshade, this time she used few jinxes she read from one of the dark arts books along with her usual contracts. Those contracts were her best bet against betrayal, they were enchanted with her magic (though she did not know that it was magic back then, she only considered it her power, another weird reason for the Durseleys to hate her), the agreements were only plain papers, mostly. She also gave veiled threats against their underworld actions, like she has enough proof to complain to the police herself if they decide to against her, which was not always true, they were mainly bluffs, but no one knew who the leader of nightshade was and she was only an errand girl according to those goons, so they can do nothing against her.

She decided to go with an accurate overview of Nightshade before taking any further steps, and started thinking. Nightshade; an organisation if it can be called that; is an established underworld emergency medical supply organisation. She initially took care of her monetary needs, was forced to do so unless she wished to fall ill, mainly due to the fact that she had to live with almost nothing but stale bread and water in her relatives' house, by small time pick pocketing from her uncle. After discovering that she can talk to snakes, her interest diverted to different kinds of anti-venoms used in hospital, which she can replace with cheap alternatives provided by snakes themselves (surprise as to what snakes can actually do, they are always underestimated by humans), for which she needed agents. She found Kevin aka Eagle on one of those days by a stroke of luck. Keen observation for few days while ensuring her relatives did not have any interest in her activities, indicated that he was capable enough and had ties in the underworld. But she was only a kid, so she had nothing to entice him. Then, she formulated that as long as no one else sees it, she can use her telekinetic powers to overcome any of her problems. Eagle needed something to ensnare him, and she found that he needed money for his only sister's illness. She immediately went to the stronghold where she found two idiots holding his mortgaged money. To this day she will admit to herself that it was one of her most foolish plans, but she hit their heads with a brick from the back and stole the money from right under their noses, and made them sign a secrecy contract without technically informing them. Sign as in dropping their blood onto the paper without informing them so (how she knew it would bind them was one thing she never understood again, she considered it as a precognitive knowledge), she knew it was not morally correct but as she was not going to harm them and this was only to ensure their silence, she had little qualms in doing so. That little stunt of hers left her tired for the next few days and she understood that doing what she did was not tolerated, by what, she did not know. She knew that it was pure luck again that they did not blab about the incident to anyone. They could not complain to the police because they were criminals themselves and it was highly unlikely for them to doubt her, a six year old child.

Faking her identity to Eagle was decidedly more difficult, but acting as her own messenger helped smooth things over, and once he signed the contract, she was absolutely certain that it was not possible for him to cheat her, that was the beauty of contracts she created, they are binding, or at least that was what happened with Piers Polkiss. Wrenching out a promise out of the fat lump (also Dudley's dear friend) was easy, and once their deal was sealed, she observed what happens when he broke his promise. It was interesting to say the least (not every day will you find a person running away from her shouting "snake"), and proved that she can use contracts to protect herself should the need arise. Eagle was sceptical about their efficiency but humoured her, and was 'in' on her capabilities about the contracts, though he never understood how they worked. She never released these contracts of hers anywhere because she knew the danger they can pose her, but that did not stop her from using them. She noticed that stricter the clauses of contract, more time it took her to create the contract. Also, no contract can exceed a time period of nine months, though initially it was three months.

Now, after the entire "magic exists and you are a witch" business, she had a feeling these contracts are very commonly used and she was definitely not the only one capable of creating a contract. But she instinctively knew that her ability was rare, just like snake-speak and wandless magic. She wanted to know more about them, therefore she was in a hurry to finish her business.

Arriving at the abandoned garage (close to the dump, so very few people are found in the area, She was allowed only because she was the only messenger of 'boss' of nightshade), she went to greet her people, ehem, nightshade's people.

Spotting her favourite person on a random scrap in his 'cooler-than-you' pose, she decided to surprise him.

"Hey eagle, it's been a while!"

"Hey shortstack, have you been slacking off, I could spot you from a mile."

"Oh come on, you did not respond till I was just behind you. I refuse to believe that you saw me."

"So, what does the boss have for us today? Am I the one doing all the work again?"

"You are no fun..."

"Oh! This is great, you are pouting. Wish I had a camera..."

"Am not"

"Are too"

"Am not"

"Are too"

"Am too"

"Are not...UH, forget it. So what's the business today? New contract as usual?" Those words broke her from her childish antics, she faced him with as much serious expression as he could. "Seriously, she acts as a kid for a while and immediately begins to act like an adult. It is as though she has schriezophrenia..." Eagle thought to himself on seeing his 'not boss,' yes, he knew that she was his boss from the very moment she spoke to him five years ago. He still remembers the day as though it was only yesterday...

* * *

**15th June, 1986**

Kevin was in a pinch. Scratch that, he was doomed. He had no more money, he used all the money he got from his mother's untimely death. She was killed in an accident and the ones responsible for her death gave them some money and left him and his sister to fend off for themselves. He never expected his sister to fall ill right after their mother's untimely demise. The treatment cost was too much to bear for him even with their modest house mortgaged in the bank. He also did many odd jobs in the grey areas of the underworld. He would never throw away all his morals, but he had to something to earn money and he was definitely not employed, so his only solution was the unsavoury jobs. Thus, Eagle was born, the swift errand boy and pocket thief working under some random boss. After a few days, he had no choice but to sell his house, so he requested his 'boss' to loan him some money. That was the beginning of his downward spiral, into the depths of hell. Even the money he got from his boss was not enough to solve his problem. Also his boss somehow made him sign a contract that pledged his loyalty fro at least ten years, a long while ago, he would have considered it problematic, but now he only needed an out fro those bosses. Hell, he was ready to work for someone else if they can promise that they won't exploit him and pay for his sister's medical fee.

Now, unless he does something, his sister's medical fee and their house will be lost to him, and he will go from an average street punk to wanted criminal, unfit to even pay for his sister. His earlier meeting with his boss did not go well, he was being gifted to another fat guy, who seemed like an even more dangerous person. He was so lost in thought that he did not notice a little girl coming towards him. Till this day that was the only time someone got a sneak on him, he was and is always keen on his surroundings, He never lets anyone get a jump on him, so he was shocked when she introduced herself as Nightshade's envoy, Belle. She promised him to extricate him from those annoying idiots under the condition he works for her boss Nightshade for another ten years, and that he won't be forced to do any unsavoury work, only minor blackmail and selling illegal medicines to the small time gangs, and she will be his liaison to the boss. If he refuses the offer, he will never see her again, nor will he get an offer with the same terms.

"Who is this shortstack and what nonsense is she spouting?" was his first thought on getting a better look of this so called 'envoy.' She was a cute little girl with black hair and green eyes, an unusual colour, he thought to himself. She looked like a little doll, no one would have pegged her as a messenger for some boss, but how efficient a kid can be in things like this. So he thought that she only wanted to play with him. He wanted to yell at her and scare her away from him, but she reminded him of his sister for some unknown reason.

He only decided to humour her by signing the paper she gave that day, but never expected her to keep her end of the deal. He did not know that if he betrayed her, she would know it right away, even the slightest intention shall be shown upon his person due to the contract. If a little girl can keep her end of the deal, then it would be beneath him to be incapable of doing so was the only thought he had back then. So he started working for nightshade.

The shortstack always slipped up in their first days, she slipped up enough to give him hints that she was nightshade (he suspected she did that to check his trustworthiness). Though she learnt very fast and slowly established a decent sized gang, only selling medication and poisons as per requirement, never getting involved in petty squabbles. Their market was only for emergencies, so they were not targeted by the bigger giants. Though she never mentioned it herself, he was certain that she knew that he knew her identity and he kept it to himself. So he slowly became the executive of nightshade, technically above her, but as the fact that he never met the boss was not known in the gang, everyone trusted him enough in the gang, with a decent amount of fear and respect, unlike the shortstack, who was only respected, never trusted with too much sensitive information (or so they thought, all his reports to the boss go through her), as it was not meant for kids of her age. He could confidently say that he was the only one she trusts enough in their gang. Later on, she explained him that the contract they sign prevents any sort of betrayal, on the basis of its very design. If anyone betrays nightshade (that was him according to the contract, he was its keeper, though he did not know it back then), it would end in them forfeiting their sanity and losing themselves in hallucinations, though he still did not understand how that functions. Nevertheless, it was good to know that you are trusted and included, that was his only opinion back then.

Now, he was watching his boss give the goons "instructions from boss," it never fails to make him laugh, it was hilarious, she was the boss, but she never acts that mature in front of these low class goons, it was hilarious to listen to rumours that their boss was a really fat guy, he can't move without a wheelchair, so he never comes to meet them; hah, like they could be any farther from truth. She showed them the renewed contracts, and there was a commotion... Now, what was this about; everyone knows that it was important to sign the contract in nightshade, it was nothing new; so why the commotion... Might need to check it out before they can try harming Belle.

* * *

Belladonna was mad. She was enraged that few of her agents did not want to sign the contract. It was nothing new in her opinion, only the person who does this business has changed. It used to be Eagle because he at least he looked intimidating enough, but now just because she was not intimidating them, they are okay with defying the boss... So she needs to intimidate them right now to establish her position. The only solution she can see to this is to use her magic, because she was not physically strong to establish supremacy, but she did not want to use her magic. So she thought of the only solution she can think of, poisoning. Using small sized darts (her merchandise actually), she struck the idiot who tried to attack her and put him to sleep immediately. Before she can be seriously harmed, she found Eagle trying to help her, away from the commotion. But she knew that if she wants to be the big bad here, she can't take his help. "What are the solutions possible for the current situation..." was the only thing going in her brain. She was surrounded by five men, as they were under the contract, they won't be able to harm her severely, but they can fight her to break few bones, as it is easily healed, it was not excluded from the contract. Two of them were using darts, two others were using short daggers, hmm...the last one was using nothing, but he had quite a bit of muscle. So he will mostly prefer a direct attack. Everyone was forming a ring around her, she noticed, and was waiting for her to be defeated, hmm, so there is resentment against her specifically in this group. She waited for her opponents to attack first, and attack they did. The burly one was first to close in on her with a simple punch to her face, and the dart users immediately covered her escape routes by throwing their darts. The short dagger users were lazily moving towards her, they were overconfident; they did not expect her to escape her current predicament. She noticed the colour of those darts and almost lost her footing, they were black. All the darts designed in the local underworld are colour-coded, and black means heavy-metal poison, which can't be remedied by her usual methods. She never manufactured those darts as she did not have any access to those poisons. So, she can't get hit with the darts, fine, as difficult as it might seem, she only has to hit the big bulky guy with the sleeping draught and immediately take down those dart users. She side stepped the punch at the very last minute and hit him with her acupuncture needle (of course covered with sopofiric drug) in his arm, thereby putting him to sleep. She immediately rushed to the guy who threw those darts, all the while taking cover by running in a criss-cross manner and hit the idiot with the same drug. She checked the situation and noted that the other two dagger users were subdued by eagle, "so where is the dart user" was her last thought before being hit with a yellow dart. "Damn it, should not have left my back open" was her last thought, though yellow dart was at least okay, it was only a sleeping drug and herbal. Her innate resistance will ensure that she wakes up in three minutes instead of usual three hours.

"Belle, why do you always do this to me?" was the only thought in Kevin's brain as he saw her falling down to a shot from the behind. She might be an excellent schemer, but her fighting skills were not that good, excellent for age but not comparable to those with experience. He immediately subdued the latest recruits, though it was a slight on his part to allow them entrance into the meeting without signing the stricter contract. He should not have let them in especially when his boss (cough-envoy-cough) was giving a visit. He tied them up and ordered them to sign the latest contract by adding two more clauses (not everyone believes in the capacity of those contracts, a nightshade knows better), they will never inform anyone about the skills and capabilities of Belle unless permitted to do so and never harm her, not even with a sleeping drug, be it knowingly or unknowingly. It took her five minutes to regain her composure and he noted that all the other guys were watching her with awe on their faces, no one wakes up so easily after being shot with her darts, that was why they were so heavily in demand. She regally addressed them to finish the signing and leave as soon as possible and leave this place, and came to him to speak.

Belladonna regained her consciousness within three minutes just as she expected to hear the frantic hissing of her familiar, who was wrapped in her sleeve. Placating her that there was nothing dangerous, it was something she usually faced, she fell into her thoughts. She never allowed anyone to use the black darts in a 'within-the-group' fight as it was close to impossible to purchase an antidote to that particular poison. Meaning, whoever did this wished and expected her death in one way or the other, and she did not find it placating because that meant that someone knows about her identity, or at least made a good guess. She needs to implement contingencies immediately. Also, the contract needs to be made stricter if she wants to leave the entire nightshade under Eagle's control. Regaining her composure, she ordered the remaining six agents to finish their contract renewal and went to Eagle. She noted that the five were tied up properly by eagle just as she expected.

She took them into a small make-shift room and Eagle did all the honours. He neatly interrogated them and obtained all the information needed. She still remembered the first time she had to see the interrogation herself, five months after she got to know Eagle, though he told her it was not meant for kids. That was her first major slip-up with Eagle, but she had no other choice back then, and her first eye opener as to what happens if she lets her guard down in this business. From that day onwards, she improved the security and introduced her contracts to everyone instead of leaving all the work to Eagle. That was the day nightshade became her true goal instead of just an escape from her relatives. Later on, when she became independent enough, she improved all her skills using what she always specialized in, magic, and used it for various security contracts. Some of those contracts were bluffs, but that meant no one but she knew which were true and which were not, thereby giving the entire deal an additional security, as violation of few contracts results in death, at least according to the paper. The strictest of the contracts she can create only caused minor pain and hallucinations, nothing was as severe as exhausting pain, let alone death but what you don't know, works in your favour here, information is worth any amount of money. The first victim of contract violation was a hoax, who was paid handsomely for his pre planned behaviour and the first true victim faced the torture of hallucinations, so her contracts were well trusted among the nightshades.

She noted with a blank expression that they were ordered by one of the local opposition gangs to collect information on the poisons produced by her makeshift organisation, so her dealing with this incident shall be established as her stance. So she decided to plant them as spies and drafted her special contract, this was one of the contracts which can be created once every five days. She only had seven such contracts, having created them all this summer. She noted that Atropa was watching those contracts with a curious expression and decided to ask her about them later. They were informed about the contracts and they willingly agreed to the terms imposed on them. This was another condition of the contract, they cannot be signed if both the parties don't know what it entails. Believing in the contract is totally another story. This was a real milestone for nightshade in the underworld, so if she wants to deal with them, she will be forced to have a proper contact even when she is in her school. Again, she had to know its location and many other details before making her move. She ordered Eagle to untie those idiots after they sign the contract.

Once all was clear, she fell in her 'serious' face as Eagle called it, "That was careless of you back then, Eagle. Any excuses to this?"

"Why all serious now, Belle? Not like it was the first time this happened right?" Indeed she never forgot the times when she was attacked, but the security today was too lax, as though he was trying to test something about her. Deciding she had enough of this, she told him "It might not be the first time something like this happened but it is the first time when this could have been prevented, and you know it yourself. So, was this your test for me? Because that will lose all the trust I built with you..." and discreetly, she hissed to Atropa, "I know that snakes can identify truth from false, so can you tell me whether or not he is being honest?" Getting a positive response, she stood in a seemingly casual stance which allows her to easily hit him with a dart should the need arise. From the twitches in his face, Eagle also understood this was serious business, and told her the truth. "Those contracts were not sufficient, we had four more recruits last three days, but now that I think about this, I have a feeling it was planned, more than likely by these gangs..."

"No, it might be an oversight on my part to base the entire organisation just on contracts... We might need to add some other security features. I'm all ears for your ideas, but before that I have something to discuss with you. You always asked me how these contracts worked right?"

"Indeed, I still don't understand how they work-"

"Just keep listening till I am done with my explanation. I had a very interesting visit today..."

* * *

Kevin (aka eagle) was shocked with the explanation Belle had to offer. Magic was real, they had an entire different world with their own history and wars, and she was going to a school to learn about its usage. He always had a feeling there was more to the shortstack than what appears to the eye, but this was beyond his wildest imaginations. His wildest imagination pegged her as a very rich 'little miss' who had to be given some 'organisation' training and all this in a controlled environment, a rumour he heard from his Italian acquaintances. So, those contracts were magic, though she did not know that it was magic back then. He was brought out of his musings when she said that she won't be able to take any decisions for a period of nine months and no guarantee whether or not she will be able to contact him, so he will be left in charge for this period and unless she herself contacts him face to face, it shall remain so. She made him an immediate payment of three thousand pounds, and told that she will contact him after two weeks if she comes up with a solution to this potential problem. Also, she warned him not to speak of magic to anyone unless he wished to be obliviated, that is memory-wiped. He had a feeling her punishment would be a lot severe than his, though he decided against mentioning this to her. He was her true agent, just as he promised her his loyalty when she helped his sister. As long as she wishes for him to act as her tool, he shall and if she wanted his services no more, he shall leave and always keep his mouth shut. He had the heart of a true nightshade, just as she expected of him, back when they sealed their first deal.

Once eagle left, Belladonna was thinking about the potential problems nightshade will now face. She was really itching to give up on Hogwarts; not that she disliked magic, she was just heavily invested in nightshade and had no intentions of abandoning it; even now she can easily abandon the group and leave Eagle to the dogs or hand over the entire group to Eagle, though that will result in an immediate collapse due to lack of supply, she was their only link to supplies; and stay in London when nightshade will be facing its first major crisis but she also knew that her contracts relied on magic, and to prevent the headmaster from getting anymore doubts and heaven forbid; actually know about nightshade, something she built to protect herself initially, and now to fulfil her dreams; she had to act as innocuous as she can, even if meant playing a role that was absolutely not her.

* * *

**The contracts and their functioning is an important part of this story. So any errors or discrepancies that might be found in that part are appreciated, though nothing important was mentioned about contracts, only their basic functioning.**

**Nightshade is an underworld illegal organisation, not downright criminal. They mainly sell herbal medicines and poisons to other underworld organisations, whose names will not be mentioned till later in the story. Belladonna is mentally at least twenty years older than your average kids, mainly due to her upbringing. So, yes, she established an organisation when she was six as ludicrous as it might seem. All other charecters are also a lot mature than the real-life, same age kids.**

** This story does not directly ignore the muggle world like many other HP fanfictions, Nightshade has an important role in the story, though what it is will not be mentioned till the end of fourth year.**

**That's it for now folks...**


	5. Chapter 5 More on Magic and Duties

**A/N: Harry Potter, as usual belong to JK Rowling, though I own the concept of magic-users and summons(Read the chapter to understand what that means). Also, this chapter includes a dialogue with Sirius Black.**

**Thanks for the favourites and follows again.**

**_$TEXT$_ means parseltongue.**

**Without any further delay, here is the chapter folks. Enjoy...**

* * *

**Knowing more about Magic and Responsibilities**

By the time she was done with her _'extra-curricular_' activities, it was quite late in the evening, so she sneaked into the orphanage and skipped dinner entirely. She knew that if she were to let the matron know that she had been 'roaming' unsupervised in the night, she will be punished with additional chores, which she did not want to do, now that she had something more important to address. Ignoring the protesting growl of her stomach, she opened her first book, '_Magical Theory-An Introduction_' by Jocelyn Frank and started reading. She understood instinctively that magic was all about intent, you wish for the world's physics to bend to your will and it does, that's all there is to it. Her book also agreed with her theory, along with many instances to the situations where plain magical power and intent was not enough and a fuel of feelings was required. Though she did not understand the classification of magic into dark and light, the book suggested that any magic meant to harm is considered dark, then every spell there is can be considered dark, as she can think of ways in which a healing spell can be used to harm, a blood clotting spell in your heart can kill you, and a blood clotting spell can be used to close the wounds before applying dittany, a potion used to accelerate healing of cuts (mentioned in the type of potions which can be used without the body's innate magic), so there should be some other classification that actually explains the difference, or the ministry is a censor board preventing the so called 'unsavoury' magic. Feeling annoyed, she immediately opened her next book, '_Hogwarts, A History_', which had many interesting facts on the castle itself, the four founders, the house system used, the village established in Hogsmeade, the Hogwarts legends- _Chamber of Secrets, Room of Requirement, Maze of Bravery and Mirror of Truths_, constructed by the four founders, one by each of them and so on. This made her looking forward to the castle itself, she couldn't wait till the beginning of September.

Atropa, who initially was watching her with something like amusement was now openly snickering at her. She was quite confused with her familiar's behaviour as usually snakes were quiet animals and prefer lazing about, though she supposed magical snakes might be different. So she asked her, _"$Whatsss ssso funny?$"_

"$_You are, missstresss, if you want to know about magic, you can asssk me, I am honour bound to anssswer you according to our deal thissss afternoon...$"_said Atropa, still laughing. So she decided to ask her 'dear' familiar about the discussion among the reptiles earlier that day. What the meaning of beast-speakers, true names, summoners was. She had that question for a while on her mind but knew that she will be able to learn about that once she actually read all her books. Atropa then became very serious, at least as serious as a snake can be, and started explaining her about the different kinds of magic-users that existed. Not all magic users are wizards and witches. Only those who needed a conduit, usually a wand, are wizards. The endless magic of wizards manipulated the preexisting magic of the world, not generate any new magic. There are five other categories not so widely known, enchanters, sorcerers, warlocks, mages, and beast-tamers. It is not that a person should have only one talent, though few talents are so rare that they fell in obscurity recently and only history has all the records of the said magic-users. Just as their name suggests, every witch or wizard needs a wand or another conduit, like gemstones, metals, plain wood or their own blood in some cases to cast magic.

Enchanters specialize in changing the functionality of an already present object, limited to non living entities usually, without a conduit. Their magic is temporary and the substance naturally reverts to its initial functions as long as its material properties remain the same. They make the substance believe that its properties are something totally different from the original properties, and the term substance includes everything. A truly powerful enchanter can alter the functionality of living beings as well, to the point of warping a person's mind with their will should they so desire. Their magic gives off a natural allure, difficult to resist for anyone with magic, this includes magical creatures and beasts.

Sorcerers do not need conduits for alchemical conversion towards healing, this includes any magic that can mend, people or animals, material or immaterial, living or non-living, dead or alive. Their magic is naturally soothing and tries to heal anything and everything surrounding them, with almost no intent to harm. Also, they change the property of the substance, not the functionality, so their magic is of a more permanent nature. A powerful sorcerer can heal wounds of any nature, be it to mind, body or soul, as long as the will of the patient accepts the said healing.

Warlocks also specialize in alchemical transmutation, like sorcerers, with the only difference being their magic does not soothe and heal. It dominates and destroys while performing the conversion. They find battlefield magic meant to harm others easy. Not curses, only battlefield magic. Their magic is dominating and tries to control everything surrounding them, a significant difference from sorcerers again.

Beast-tamers or druids, also known as the children of wild by ancients, have an aura that appeals(different from enchanter's allure though they are commonly mistaken for each other) to creatures living in the wild. They are different from beast-speakers, who can only speak the language unlike beast–tamers, who don't need the aid of language to appeal to the wild. Most of them are blessed by mother-nature herself and are said to be the first magic users. They have a variety of natural talents like communication with plants, animals, and anything in the nature, including stronger magical creatures like fey, merfolk, centaurs, phoenixes,ice-luans, magical serpents, snow leopards, herbs, magical plants, lakes, burrows, shrines, and almost any wild dweller/dwelling of magic, whether they are alive or dead never mattered (if dead, they can speak to their last impression). They are also supposed to have extremely long life and high physical capabilities.

Mages have a naturally high sensitivity to magic. Unlike others whose wandless magic has a limited aptitude, they have no limits on their wandless magic and they are capable of naturally learning any other aptitude, that is, they can behave like sorcerers, warlocks, enchanters and druids whenever the need arises. If the druids are blessed by nature, mages are blessed by magic. Their magic feels like a shining beacon to everyone else with magical sensitivity once they realize their true nature, and their magical specialties vary in many ways. They have unlimited potential, but require a lot of practice and grooming to actually tap into that potential.

All these magic-users have a true name corresponding to their capabilities, which is born from their capabilities; true names are something wizards do not have. That is the most significant difference between a wizard and these magic-users. This true name is something only given to those you trust as true names have power. This does not mean the wizards cannot learn the same things, just that they find it difficult to do the same things without a conduit, while the special ones have a natural aptitude.

"$_What about 'Artessss' then? You mentioned that earlier today..$."_

$"_Artesss are something which need ssspeccialissed energiesss, Dark artesss need negative energies going againssst the natural order itssself. Thaat'sss why their practiccccce isss frowned upon, but asss long asss one does not let thosssse energiessss into their core or use wandlessss magic, they will be sssafe, with a very few exceptionssss…$"_

"$_Are all the banned ssspellsss thisss ssso called _exceptionssss_?$"_

"$_No, mistressss, truly Dark Artessss , the onesss which are forbidden, alsso called asss Forbidden Artesss, are few and far between, you will a sssenssse of wrongnesssss on ssseeing them, your magic protessstssss againssst usssing any Forbidden Artesss, That'sss how you know that they are Forbidden Artesss…$"_

"$_Ssso, what did you mean by sssummonersss?$"_

"$_Sssummoning magic iss sssomething we do not like to ssspeak of, it enssslavesss uss magical creaturessss unwillingly with contractsss like the one you usssed earlier..$."_

"$_Unwillingly? What do you mean by that?$"_

"$_Sssummonig is a beast-tamer art when agreed by both the parties and frowned upon when it isss not agreed by both the partiesss. It isss not liked by usss becaussse of the lassst few druidsss' evil actsss ensssslaving usss, one of my 'parentsss' wasss a victim for a long while. I would sssuggest getting more information about this before you experiment sssomething...$"_

"$_Don't you worry, I will never ensssslave you, it is a promissse..$." _she ensured her familiar, thinking to herself if her dealing with nightshade was equivalent to enslaving them. She then convinced herself that it was mutual and even if it were enslaving, she had no choice but to do that to keep herself safe, and it's not like disobedience results in extreme reactions; only few hallucinations. She immediately wanted to find better alternatives to those contracts as soon as possible. Watching that her mistress was in distress, Atropa curled up in her lap and reassured her, _"$It's alright mistersss, I underssstand your reasssonsss and I will never hold it againssst you, also thossse were not summoning contractsss, they were something elssse entirely, but if you ssstill wissssh to know, summoning isss a ssacred act to mossst of us, we can only accccept one sssummoner at a time, and the sssummoner is honour bound to protect ussss when we are in need. Thisss doess not happen when the contract isss forccced upon usss...That'sss why I don't like to talk about it...$"_

"$_How do I know if I am in one of thossse categoriesss? Alssso, isss wandlessss magic not sssomething that everyone can learn?$"_

"$_Wandlesss magic isss an aptitude, misssstresss, indeed everyone can learn it, but the innate nature of your magic cannot be changed. Asss to how you will be able to determine the nature of your magic, I do not know...$"_

"$_That'sss fine Atropa, I'll find a sssolution to it myssself... What did you mean by magical core maturing then?$"_

"$_The literal meaning misstresss... Jussst like everything elssse in nature, magical cores are initially weak when born, they slowly increassse in ssstrength and when they are strong enough, they undergo a metamorphosssisss...Thiss is what you humansss refer to as magical core maturing, beassstss have only one maturity, creaturesss have two to three, while humansss have three to five sssuchhh maturitiessss...Thisss isss the reassson humansss are inherently stronger than beasts in amgic, though they have close to zero resistance unlike beasts, which have very high resistance...$"_

"$_Anything else you know in general about magic?$"_

"$_No misstrssess, that is all I can ssay when you know almossst nothing yourssself, if you wisssh to know something, asssk me and I will tell you what I know...$"_

_"$Okay then, thanksss for all the help, that reducccced the need to actually read everything...$"_ she told her familiar and started reading her books again, this time her school books instead of general magical knowledge, so that she would be able to catch up with all those children who stayed in the magical world. She will prove that she was not a worthless squib who can be tossed out like yesterday's trash to everyone who abandoned her.

* * *

**25****th** **July, 1991, Black Manor, West Devonshire**

Sirius Black was not a morning person. He always stayed up late, initially when he was a child, because of the duties heaped upon him as the Black Heir, in his teenage years to enjoy his life by partying, when he was an auror due to his line of work and now as the Lord Black due to excessive paperwork. He never expected himself to take up the Lordship, but his grandfather did not name his father as the heir, it was a shock when he received the Black lordship, ironically on 1st November 1981, after his disastrous meeting with James. His grandfather was found dead in his manor, no signs of attack, yet in suspicious conditions. Unfortunately for him, despite his political position as the Lord Black, the entire Auror department was busy with rounding up suspected death-eaters, so no one investigated the case back then and any further investigation was totally made impossible due to lack of trail after so many days. He tried his level best to bring that to the authorities, this he still considered as the true reason behind his suspension back then, an auror whose priority was family indicates a lack of professionalism. Screw professionalism when his grandfather might have been murdered, he might not have liked the man but he was his grandfather and it was his duty towards him to see his murderers behind the bars as an auror and what did he get; a suspension order and a pink slip within months. He thanked the powers above that he was rich, he was all but blacklisted from the ministry after that eventful day.

Now, he was just about to wake up when he heard the mad screeching of an owl, huh, that was weird, almost everyone of his acquaintances knew he wakes up late unless there was a wizengamont meeting, so who could have sent the owl, he thought to himself and checked the letter. It was a missive from Grignots. There were no scheduled missives he was supposed to receive in this time of the year, so he checked it immediately. He read the letter word-to-word and fell down onto the bed, laughing like mad, and weeping tears of joy; it was his Belladonna, his little Belle, his goddaughter who was abandoned by her useless father just because she was thought to be a squib. He tried everything back when he got to know that she was abandoned, but as she was shrouded by Potter family magic and despite the blood adoption, the Potter family has primacy over her, he could not find her despite his efforts. So as a last ditch resort, he paid the goblins a hefty price to inform him if she went to Grignots. He tried to request them to search for her for which they replied in the negative as goblins were honour bound to not interfere in family-magic, that was the only wizard-magic which needed goblin assistance during its establishment, so an oath of non-interference was given by all the goblins, no matter what the circumstances, they cannot interfere.

He immediately penned a missive to Grignots, requesting them to invite her to his manor that very day along with a letter to her, as he knew once the magical signature was registered at grignots, they can send mail to was annoyed that Dumbledore did not even see fit to inform him about her status of not-squib, though he did not exactly support all of Dumbledore's recent policies. But a political grudge was no reason to prevent him from meeting his god daughter, everyone knew that he was doing everything he could, discretely of course, to search for her. He missed out a great deal of her life due to his incapability, but not anymore, he thought to himself.

He was expecting a positive, or at least a hopeful reply, but what he received was definitely not a positive reply. He read the letter again and again, and had to wonder what kind of life she had to lead till this day to be so... jaded. The letter was a perfectly polite reply to prying eyes should anyone else read it without knowing all the circumstances and their previous correspondence, not one that would be expected of a child, a perfect political response even, with all the encoded words. It read as

_Lord Black,_

_While I am flattered that you wished to invite me to your manor today, I am currently preoccupied, and hence, would like to politely decline your kind offer. I was told that you were my godfather, without anything else other than that little tidbit. So, I have many questions about you, like who is your family, what is your current occupation, whether you are married or not. I missed out many years of having a godfather spoiling me, so if possible, I would like to meet with you for an hour at the leaky cauldron, tomorrow morning, seeing as I have some business at Grignots myself. Please forgive me if this letter is not penned as per the protocol, as I am still learning the culture having stayed away for so long._

_Yours_

_Belladonna Potter._

His invitation to the manor was declined, indicating that she did not trust him enough to come to the Black Manor without any additional security, and instead, he was being asked to meet her at leaky cauldron with goblins being informed beforehand, as she had an appointment at grignots, a subtle warning not to try anything at their meeting. The 'spoiling me' part was practically dripping with venom despite its politeness. The who is your family and I know very little about culture was a dig at him that he was from a prominent dark family and he did not look for her, let alone teach her what was expected of her as a daughter of Houses Potter and Black, and his occupation was a dig at his political status as a Lord. The address Lord Black instead of Sirius as he insisted she call him also showed that she was not yet ready to forgive him. He found himself with a terrible headache and yet, was oddly proud of her that she was able to write a political letter at her young age. Hell, he was unable to write a political letter till his fourteenth birthday, and that was with all the lessons in politics he was taught as the Black Heir.

He immediately penned a response saying that he would, indeed, meet up with her the next day and that he was sorry for not being a part of her life. He also mentioned that he would wish to celebrate her birthday by throwing a party and asked her what she actually liked so that he can buy her a gift, using all his political lessons. Writing usual political letters was easier than this in his opinion.

_Dear Belle,_

_May I call you that? I understand your interest in my family, indeed I am Lord Black as you guessed, of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black and we Blacks always go by the motto 'family first and foremost.' I would like to meet you tomorrow at the appointed place as you recommended, though I hope you will allow me to pick the next meeting place, I know quite a few better restaurants, magical and muggle if you are not comfortable with magical restaurants, where we can have a lovely lunch, or dinner. I have many things to discuss with you regarding your earlier problems, and the house of Black is willing to help you should the need arise; we protect our own first and foremost. Also, I don't think you visited your grignots valut, if you have no problems with the arrangement, I would like to accompany you. Rest assured that I have some business to take care of at grignots myself, so it won't be an inconvenience._

_Yours loving Godfather,_

_Sirius Black, Lord of Most Noble and Ancient House of Black._

* * *

**22nd July, 1991**

Belladonna was studying very hard from the next day and found many new things. The main categories of magicals according to the book written by Edward Rosier, was purebloods, Half bloods and Muggle-borns, decided by the number of magical parents and grandparents you have, a clear prejudice and plain political classification; it did not have a word on the classification she was told by Atropa; if she had seen one. She thought it was bloody useless as it made absolutely no sense. Also, the repeated rambling about the sacred twenty-eight, who can trace their ancestry all the way back up-to Merlin, or Arthur, or whatever. The books were very vague about that too. Reading those books made her feel as though she saw a couple of bigoted idiots holding almost all the money just because they can do so. She did not understand the vague terms of family magic, she again noted that down in her journal which was being filled with her increasing doubts along with improving her handwriting with quill. Another extremely backward practice in her opinion, but she will not be the one to face the wrath of purebloods by introducing pens and pencils to them.

This continued for a few days, till she received a missive from her '_godfather_.' It was written very informally and with personal details, but she was not yet ready to trust someone after what she faced with- no, she won't think of it, it only brought out bad memories.

_Dear Belladonna, _

_How are you? I am your godfather, Sirius Black. I know that it is terribly rude of me to write a letter when you might not even know anything about me, but I hope you at least heard of me from whoever introduced you to the magical world. I was to be notified if you received a Hogwarts letter along with your father, but I never received the notice from the school. Even now, I only got to know about this because you were seen in Grignots and the goblins sent me the information upon my request. I know that I missed out a lot in your life, so I would like to get to know you. If it is fine with you, I would like to invite you to my manor to have dinner. Attached with this letter is a portkey, it will transport you to the Black Manor, timed exactly at 4 p.m. today evening. The activation code is 'padfoot'- that's my nick name by the way- it is keyed to your magical signature. If you want to write to me, send it to the name Lord Black, they will reach me the fastest._

_I also want to discuss your current living arrangements if possible, but only in a face-to-face meeting._

_Looking forward to meeting you_

_Your loving Godfather,_

_Sirius Black_

_P.S. :You can call me Padfoot or Sirius, I'm serious, you know, and there are Sirius matters we need to discuss. _

She read the letter and scoffed, like hell she will be going somewhere unknown with some unknown magical device. Not to mention the bad puns in the post script, an attempt to endear her, might work on kids three years old. She immediately penned a response to him, with hidden barbs, if he was a true politician, as his status indicated, he will be able to see the true meaning of that letter and if not, then he was indeed as gullible as his letter, and sent it with the owl that came to bring her letter. She did not feel any guilt in this, as he supposedly _abandoned_ her according to what Dumbledore told; not like she believed him; so she would not act like a gullible child in front of her godfather. If he wished to continue his association with her, he had to accept her for who she is, and the letter she sent would do a passable job. Hell, that was not even half of what she could come up with.

She received her response on the same day, in the evening. He clearly got the hidden message within her polite words, yet he sent a message that actually accepting her invitation, with the stipulation that he will get to pick the next location, meaning she will be able to trust him after this at least and informing her that he had some business at Grignots as well. Also, he asked her if she received the key to her trust valut, which in her opinion was a foolish question, as it was not possible to do any shopping without money, which was all stored in the valuts, but there was something she was missing there as he also knew that from his initial letter. He also signed his name as the lord Black, which meant he was attending the meeting as not just her godfather but also as the Lord Black. The fact that he used an endearing nick name indicated that he did not take offence to her letter, which meant he was willing to consider developing a relationship with her. The fact that he emphasized so much on family indicated that he considered her his family and the house of Black will back her if the need arises, against anything as that statement was unconditional. His emphasis on muggle restaurants meant that he was ready to adjust his plans to the muggle side should she request so. That means, phase two of her plan- meet him and decide whether or not he would make a good guardian. She decided to meet him and see for herself if he was really okay with her or not.

So, here she was, at the lobby of _Leaky Cauldron_, dressed in her emerald green robes; they brought out the colour of her eyes, so she liked that colour; waiting for her godfather. Atropa was hidden within her left sleeve, and was warned against showing herself unless mentioned, and her wand in her right sleeve. She practiced how to draw her wand discretely for this occasion yesterday was able to pick up on it very soon as her wand was quite similar to her darts, with the only difference in size, her darts were no longer than five inches, while her wand was at least twelve inches. She also learnt the levitation charm, one which can be used in a multitude of ways should she be attacked, along with minor help from Atropa. She spotted a person dressed in immaculate dark grey, almost black, robes and his curly hair tied in a low ponytail entering the said establishment. On seeing his facial features though, she had to withhold a gasp, he shared many of her features. She immediately guessed that this man was Sirius Black, Lord of Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, and in a few moments, she was proven right as he approached her and asked her, "Belle? Is that you?"

"Yes, Lord Black. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Though I would like to talk to you, I would very much prefer it if there are no prying eyes and this place hardly grants us any privacy..." she spoke in a soft yet firm voice, her face one of disinterested boredom, a perfect pureblood mask. She had to give points to him, he did not call her full name, it was not a good idea to announce their meeting to the entire world and the Potter name was famous, what with all the 'you-know-who' and everything.

"I took the liberty of arranging a private meeting room here, if it's fine with you..." he trailed off nervously. He did not expect her to share so many traits of Black family, hell she reminded him of Bellatrix when she was her age with a different eye colour; not Andromeda, her face had softer brown curls, unlike Bella's pitch black curls; though that was a very unique colour, different from Lily's sea green, hers was an emerald green, somehow shining like real emeralds. He knew that if her eyes were any indication, she was a very powerful witch, the only one he knew who had the same sort of power in their eyes was Dumbledore and the snake-face.

"Indeed, it was thoughtful of you, please," she motioned her hands with ease indicating she did that many times, "If you could lead the way."

She followed him to the room and waited till he took a seat. Once they got their refreshments, they fell in an awkward silence, with neither of them knowing how to break the metaphorical ice. The silence seemed to stretch indefinitely; deciding that seven years in Griffindor should at least have given him enough courage for this; he introduced himself, "Okay, I would like to start this first then, I am Sirius Orion Black, your bonded godfather, if no one told you yet. I am also the Lord of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black. I used to take care of you when you were just a child..." he trailed off, waiting for her to speak. She spoke with practised ease, as though this was not the first time she was in a pinch, "Nice meeting you Lord Black, I am Belladonna Potter as you already know and indeed, I prefer Belle as you guessed..."

"Not Bella?"

"Heavens, no, I don't like that name, at all, If you addressed me with that name, I wouldn't have even come to this meeting," she joked without a smile, she loathed the name Bella after- **_No_**, this was not the time to lose herself to the blinding rage and hatred, she thought to herself and continued, "so now that we are done with our introductions, can you tell me more about how and why I was abandoned, something different from headmaster Dumbledore, if possible."

Straight to the point, precise and exactly where it hurt, this girl will be a force to reckon with one day, he thought to himself, "Though, it felt like she lost her composure back there for a moment," and answered everything with as much honesty as he can. He saw clearly that she appreciated honesty and not flowery words. "I don't know what Dumbledore told you, but my petition to take care of you as James is not sane enough was totally ignored, though I was given the status of a visitor. Later the same day, James bound you with Family Magic, it prevented anyone magical from coming close to you, let alone contact you and sent you to Petunia, Lily's sister, your aunt without informing the Wizengamont. It was a punishable offence, but there was nothing I could have done back then due to the enormous support the House of Potter had as its heir offed Voldemort. If I were to fight for your custody, your location would have been outed and there were many Death Eaters who would wish for your death, if only as a symbol of their victory. Also, I was suspected to have leaked the Potter's secret; rest assured, it is not me; that meant I did not have any way to regain your custody. So, I had to lie low and wait for an opportunity, and no letters could reach you. The only exception being when the message was sent to your magical signature, like the Hogwarts letter. Usually, when owls carry letters, they carry it to the address mainly, and then to the magical signature if it is known and the owls are well trained, like Grignots owls for instance. But these circumstances prevented me from contacting you..."

"Indeed, I understand, but why didn't you have my magical signature, as my guardian, you should at least know that, I would presume. Could you explain that?"

"You are right, but you forgot something, you were proven to be a squib back then, that means when you won't have a detectable magical signature..."

"So, you indeed believed that I was a squib? That's... not reassuring-"

"No, I did not believe those accusations. I even tried to contact you later, but after that instant, I believe your magical signature changed. That was something new, it is rare for a person to survive magical exhaustion of that level, so there were no previous records even in the Black library. Or, it has something to do with the unreachability charm cast on you, I don't know how it works, it is a Potter family secret..." he cut her off before she could reach a conclusion.

Belladonna took a deep breath to clam herself and asked him a rather blunt question. She herself did not know what to think of this person, evidence (solid evidence that he abandoned her, there were ways even she could think of to prevent what happened) provided by Dumbledore(she might not believe this guy, but the evidence he provided was fool-proof) suggests he might not be reliable enough but this discussion and his correspondence so far says he might be reliable, if a little unpolished when it comes to tact (like who in their right mind would contact someone and say that he had goblins indirectly spy on him, without prior information).So, she decided to be honest with him and said, "While I understand your predicament, I hope you understand that as someone who was raised in an orphanage, it is difficult for me to rely on adults. I don't mind getting to know you, Lord Black-"

"-Call me Sirius, and I thought you lived with the Durseleys?"

"-Mr. Black then, sorry that I don't find it easy to ignore formalities; I would appreciate it if you can understand my liking to freedom, that was the only thing I always had as an orphan. I don't mind visiting your manor, but not today as I already have an engagement, but maybe sometime later?" she easily diverted the topic, the Durseleys were not something she would discuss with anyone.

"That would be great. Also, did you visit the Black Valut you actually had?"

"Black Valut? I thought I was a daughter of House of Potter, so I only had a Potter trust valut. Was I mistaken?"

"You were not mistaken, merely misinformed. You are the heiress to the House of Black, right after your first birthday, you were appointed after me in the line of succession after the blood adoption that day. I did not know whether I was disowned or not as my grandfather was the Lord back then, but if I had any say in the matter, so would you, that was my idea behind that decision..."

"I am sorry, but I was not informed of all of this…Looks like the books I have been reading have not been sufficient enough. Can you suggest me what I can actually do to remedy my current ignorance on anything related to this culture?" while thinking to herself, "Dumbledore, if you knew all this and decided to keep me in the dark, I will have my vengeance. Also, there goes your proof that this guy was the secret keeper, No Lord would try to kill his own heiress."

"My pleasure. Though, I would recommend few extra classes as well in Hogwarts curriculum, for which I shall make the payment. Did you really not know anything about blood adoption?"

"No... The headmaster was busy with informing me some other 'essential' things (trivial in my opinion, but I can't be so blunt now, can I). I would assume he totally forgot that I was muggle-raised, so I had little to no idea about the intricacies of this society," she scoffed, finding herself at ease speaking to this person, no, Sirius Black. While she did not read much about this particular topic, she knew that blood adoptions were rarely performed and the fact that he blood adopted her meant that he had a responsibility towards her, an obligation if you will. Also, speaking ill of the ones who dumped her at the Durseleys made her feel at ease, and no matter how much she wanted to blame him, she knew she could not, because he was honest about it with her. The fact that Dumbledore did not inform her of all this was also an added bonus to him (The false evidence rather clearly showed that Dumbledore did not like Sirius). As a proof to his allegations, she also read a little about the recent Wizengamont politics and the house of Black lead a block against the abandoning of squibs, from the year 1981, which was when she was coincidentally abandoned, and she was smart enough to put two and two.

"Well, blood adoption is a ritual, usually performed to either protect or take responsibility of the children. I am your blood-adopted father, which means I can act as your magical guardian when your father does not see it fit to act as such. Also, you are the heiress to house of Black, which means that you will need to learn your responsibilities as the heiress and Black Family magic. You will need to spend some time in the manor for that, not necessarily now, but no later than your thirteenth birthday. We can discuss this on a later date, if you want, I can give you the books related to this right now from the Black Family valut, though you cannot lend them to anyone, they contain family secrets..."

"That should have at least allowed you to locate me, should it not?"

"No, it could not as the House of Potter has primacy over you due to the fact that your birth father is Lord Potter. But in case we can prove his incompetency, it is possible for me to have your custody, which could be easily accomplished if you can actually prove your statement-"

"-While the idea is indeed tempting, Mr. Black, I do believe I made my stance on this aspect pretty clear, though I am not averse to visiting you for a short while, as I can imagine the difficulties you might face if you house me, Lord Potter might find it offensive enough to warrant aggression towards House Black. I mean no offense, but I don't wish to impose on your kindness." she cut him off, to push him to see how far he would go to protect her interests, even if it meant a feud with the Noble and Ancient House of Potter, which, despite its lower position in the hierarchy had a higher influence than the House of Black as of now.

"None taken, I would have respected your wishes if the situation was not this dire, but as you mentioned an orphanage, I would like to insist on the housing idea, at least a building where you can stay with minimal supervision. I will never let you stay in an orphanage when I can provide an alternative. That is my responsibility and the least I could do for you, and you need not concern yourself about the offense that Lord Potter might take. We Blacks trade in secrets, so you can rest assured that I have enough dirt on him so that he will think twice next time befor abandoning my heiress without informing me. I have been waiting for this moment for a while, you know?" he concluded. Belladonna was shocked with his insistence, she never met any adult who respected her as Belladonna after that fiasco- no, not **_those thoughts_ **again, she thought, shoving them away; not the envoy of nightshade, and the fact that she was his heiress gave her enough reason to trust him with her wellbeing at least. She was proud that her godfather had black mail material, even happier that he was willing to divulge that information to her and felt that Nightshade will get along well with him. It was obviously clear that Sirius was not willing to divulge that tid-bit so that she won't be overwhelmed, but the fact that he did proved his trustworthiness and unless he did something to actually break it, she had no intentions of repaying this trust with betrayal. Though it did not mean she would open up to him either, just that she will not betray him.

"As you insist then, Mr. Black," she told him with a warm smile, "though I have a few things I would like to inform you as well. But I would prefer it if they remain just that, secrets. Before that, let's conclude our business at Grignots, shall we? Then, I would like to visit your manor, and especially the library. Let us discuss the other details later, when there is a better security," She spoke with an excited gleam in her eyes while speaking about the library, so that he would not notice too much about her other statements, which were spoken either too fast or too softly, as though she was muttering it to herself. She wanted to find someone to help her with some of her abilities, but not to an extent where she can be cornered permanently. So, she decided to inform him about some of those abilities, not all of them, of course. Like, she would never divulge the fact that she was a parselmouth. Also, her contracts were another thing she would not inform freely, as they can be used to form an escape plan should the need arise. She would always be prepared for the worst outcome after the hand she was dealt with in her life.

Sirius carefully observed her expressions and had to admit that she had what it took to make people eat from her palm, like his late aunt Cassiopeia. She had an uncanny ability to manipulate people as well, if not for his years of practice with politicians, he would not have noticed her misdirection when the topic was something she did not want to divulge. The entire conversation, she was leading him along and he was terrified to think of what she could do had she been taught all these lessons from her childhood, as it was supposed to be.

* * *

**So, how was the classification of wizards? If you assume wizards are weak, that is not the case at all, they have slightly less overall aptitude compared to other 'magic-users' as I defined them. I would appreciate if anyone can give a fancy term to that as well, preferably latin or any ancient language.**

**Reviews are appreciated.**

**Next chapter: Bella finally enters Hogwarts. It will be released sometime in the first week of April, preferably on weekends.**


	6. Birthday, Lessons and KingsCross Station

**A/N: Harry Potter and all its characters belong to JK Rowling, I am only playing with them. **

**A/N: This chapter has mentions of emotional trauma, so read with your own discretion. **

* * *

**Birthday, lessons and Kings Cross Station **

After their discussion, Belle returned to her orphanage with additional tomes on Black family history, something called mind artes (Lord Black told her that their family magic has its origins in mind artes, though she was warned by Atropa, she knew well enough that her godfather would not wish any harm to her), and magical core exercises to strengthen her magic. She did not want to ask about the types of magic-users, as she knew that was a controversial topic at least according to Atropa, and she was not about to trust someone to that extent. She also reassured him that she would be fine if he picked her up after two days, as she had to say her goodbyes there, and she would give her exams later. That was just an excuse, she already finished her secondary school as she was smart enough to skip grades, though the Durseleys never allowed that, she lives in an orphanage now. She was actually planning to give her university entrance exams next year, before this business. Now that she will be studying magic, she can enter the university if it turns out to be bad enough for her. She had a meeting with Eagle the next day, so she had to set her business in order before leaving. She gave him specific instructions and told him to contact her should the need arise with the owl she showed him, and to ignore the correspondence from any other owls. Her owl would come to him once or twice a week with instructions. Hedwig, she named her owl after the patron saint of orphans, ironic considering her parents were actually alive. She was a snowy white owl with mild grey tips, which she could promise the owl did not have when she purchased her the same day she went to meet her godfather, as her official familiar, though she made it clear to both of them that they were both her familiars and she did not want them quarrelling. Now that all her business was actually done, she decided to leave for the Black manor, with the portkey Sirius gave her along with her Heiress ring from the Grignots valut. He mentioned that she would be getting lessons on her duties and a discussion on how to deal with the Potters. She also might have a chance to visit her mother later, so they might need to play nice, or play politics, that is force the permission to visit, easily accomplished if they can prove the treatment of Lord Potter towards her. She also studied those weird books from knockturn and the tome Ollivander gave her (that was in a different language, she still had no idea how to translate that), finally after reading and gaining rudimentary information on magical theory, and for the first time in her life, she did not understand the meaning of academic text, an insult to her otherwise excellent mind, which she took pride in. So, she decided to read them later when she had the theory through, maybe after some research in a library.

* * *

**26****th**** July, 1991, Black Manor**

Sirius Black, she decided was an excellent host. Extra points for the fact that he had a really huge manor. She acted as polite as she could, making small talk whenever it was necessary. He explained her about the wizarding sport, Quidditch, in which her father was a prodigy. She definitely did not see any point in all the ridiculous rules of the game and was properly mortified when he mentioned that it was the only game in the wizarding world. She was shocked to listen to a bark like laughter echoing amusement.

"That was the first time I saw you smile Belle. You should do that frequently, it makes you look cute."

"Alright then, Mr. Black-"

"-Sirius, I told you no need for formalities in non public settings." He told her with a warm smile. He noticed the walls she has been building around her, overly formal even when there was no need to be so.

"Okay then... Sirius. You mentioned extra classes in order to catch up. What are they?"

"Wizarding etiquette and law, magical theory and any additional language class, preferably Ancient Greek or Celtic. That would be my suggestion for the first year, and you can decide on whether or not you wish to continue in your second year."

"I can understand the others but why languages? I read that there are potions for that purpose, despite the difficulty to brew one."

"There are potions meant for gaining knowledge, but they work only when you have a minimum understanding of the language. So, it is easy for us to learn Latin with the potions, as it is quite similar to English. There is more to it, but I do not know much."

"What about speaking to magical creatures, beings and beasts?"

"That is not a skill which can be learnt with potions, like speaking to snakes or Fae-folk, those skills are almost always inherent... Why do you have such an avid interest in that topic anyways?"

"No specific reason... just that the book on magical theory stated that spells are based on Arithmancy, language and intent, in the same order, including ancient runic languages in the calculations..." she rambled about the books. Sirius found this amusing but as her tirade got more and more subjective, he was incapable of understanding anything. This discussion clearly indicated that despite her capability in maneuvering, she had an equally enthusiastic academic side, and it was cute seeing that childish interest in her.

"Whoa, whoa, that is spell crafting, and I know very little about that, but I can suggest you the books in the library. Mind you, no family magic till your second majority because the Black family magic mainly deals with secrets and the like, so it requires an extremely powerful magic. I can forbid you from doing so, but that is not a healthy way to go about this. I suppose?" he asked, changing the topic entirely to gauge her reaction. She clammed up on the unasked question in his statement, not willing to answer it. He just sighed and told her, "You can trust me, you know. I understand your squeamishness in this trusting people thing when you were abandoned by your father, I know how that feels-"

"-YOU DON'T HAVE THE SLIGHTEST IDEA WHAT LIFE WAS TO ME" she yelled in frustration, breaking quite a few antique pieces in the room. She knew that having a guardian would mean that she would not have the privacy she wished to have, but she never expected Sirius to be this nosy, nor did she expect him to bring up her trust issues so bluntly. And the _nerve_ of the guy to inform her that he _knew_ what it was to be locked in a cupboard, treated as the lowliest of slaves, beaten and bruised to the point of inability to move, find solace in her only friend and be betrayed by him in the_\- __**NO**__,_ she would not think about it. That was one memory that always led her to have nightmares even today. She forced herself to look him in his eye, giving him her deadliest stare, unmindful that he was the lord of her house and it was not a good idea to antagonize him. All the previous days' betrayal had been weighing her down, and she had violently suppressed all her anger regarding this. She was sure that she would have a breakdown, which she was hoping to postpone for a while, but the earlier statement triggered her outbreak.

Sirius was expecting an emotional breakdown (he was half hoping now that it would have been better if she cried) or anger and disappointment, not the shear rage and hatred she showed when he mentioned her situation. He knew that she had good control over her magic, but experiencing that firsthand was an entirely different story. Her magic was vicious, lashing out at almost anything in her panic. He marvelled at her control over her emotions if this was what she felt when someone mentioned the Potters as their praises were sung almost everywhere in Britain but the fact that his little Belle had faced these feelings itself was making him _unhappy_. He had to reassure her in order to bring her out of her panic. So, he spoke to her in what he considered a soothing voice, "Belle, calm down. I shall not pry open your secrets, but I wish you can trust me. I understand abuse, abandonment, betrayal and many other things, of which I most certainly will never speak of. I understand your rage- don't interrupt me, listen!" he yelled, lacing his voice with magic when she was about to interrupt him again, something he usually did in Wizengamont meetings when he had to get his point through, "I understand that there is a lot more than just betrayal from your reaction as I was an abandoned child myself, and you are controlling your anger towards the situation which is a lot more than just abandonment I would assume. This is not good for you in any way. Rage as much as you want, but let the anger out of your system. It is not healthy to let it stew, as it literally eats away your brain. Just know that I will always be here for you, this I swear on my name as Black. I will listen to your woes and aid you when you need it, help you against your foes and heal you as long as you let me do so, because this is my responsibility and the least I could do to you."

Belle was frozen, as Sirius' words forcefully reminded her of warm blue eyes giving her the same promise.

"_I swear it on my name as Canis, Bella, that I will always be with you." A promise which shall be held to the end of his life._

"_Bella, Why don't you fight when you are being belittled?" a reasonable question to bring her out of her shell and taught her to fight._

"_You are not a worthless freak,__** ma Belle. **__You__ are very smart to be around, though you could be cuter if you were not so shy..." never showing pity, but showing an understanding never shown. _

"_Want me to teach you...I thought you would never ask..." with a mischevious look in his eyes._

_Her best friend before she left the Durseleys. Always helped her and taught her many things starting from fighting to smuggling. She was happy to help him whenever he asked__ and__in whatever way she can, never caring if what she did was law-breaking or not, __and in return obtained the only thing she was longing for, a family, a place she could call her own. But she was betrayed in the worst possible way once he got what he wanted._

"_Heh, Bella dear, what did you expect from a criminal? So hungry for recognition that you never saw it coming, did you?"All of it turned to hatred, burning, searing, scalding hot hatred. _

"_You will never be able to believe anyone else after this, you worthless little freak. That's what I will always revel in" Kicked in the gut._

"_Bella, So naive... I never told you my true identity, did I?" breaking her ankle by stepping hard on it._

"_Run away if you wish to live, ma Belle, you won't win against me..." A broken arm._

"_Never believe anyone as long as you live..." Bruised ribs._

"_Let this be my last lesson to you, my __**protégé**__...like it or not, you are mine..." His last words before abandoning her, practically dripping with venom, breaking her already fragile heart to pieces with that one word._

She saw his grey eyes, promising sincerity and trust. She so wanted to trust him but knew that it would be an uphill battle, but she also knew that she refused to give Ana- no, that bastard the satisfaction of breaking her, the very reason she never trusted anyone. She knew that she has been doing exactly as he wished her to, destroying herself, but she could not bring herself to open up with wounds so raw.

Sirius saw her inner turmoil and immediately understood that the trauma, whatever it was, ran deep. It was close to impossible for her to trust anyone, her very reaction indicated that, and mind healers were definitely not an option for someone with trust issues. He immediately told her, "I will wait till you can open up to me..."

"Even if it might be never?"

"Even then. More so. I will always be here for you."

"Thanks, Sirius" she said letting out a breath she did not know she was holding. She knew that she was broken in some ways, and her scars ran deep. But she will never allow her past to control her future, though she prefers holding her cards close to her chest, and will never trust anyone without backups. Sirius was trustworthy if he did so much for her and asked for so little.

* * *

**31****st**** July, 1991, Black Manor**

Belle woke up to the soft hisses of Atropa, her familiar. Ever since that day she confided in Sirius, her familiar was acting sulky with her. She asked her familiar what it was about, only to be told that she can believe in her, and only when she told her snake the barest minimum of what happened, did she stop pestering. That was enough to satisfy her, but she was still angry that she had to literally blackmail her to get the information, though she felt sorry for what happened to her human. She decided that she will be teaching her whatever she wished to learn as long as she knew it and it would help her, but will do so only when asked, her way of dealing with Belle's scars.

Belle slowly went to the library and sat in her usual spot, a cozy arm chair near the window, allowing enough light to read through the books. After reading the 'Advanced Classification of Magic and Magic Weavers' by Altair Black, a very old tome, written in 14th century, she understood a great deal more about the types of magic. The book had the barest minimum about magic-users or magic weavers as they were called, but very clear classification of magic. She was finished with the book and decided to open the tome Ollivander gifted her, as it needed a clear understanding about magical theory. The book was written in Celtic, and the translation spell she found was not enough to translate it. She was slowly translating it word to word using the dictionary, again thanks to the Black Library, it had almost all the basic books; because she knew she wouldn't be able to do this in Hogwarts. Engrossed in her research, she was quite startled when she heard Sirius' voice, calling her into the sitting hall.

She did not know any appointment Lord Black had today, and even if he did, it was not the time to announce her as the heiress as they discussed earlier. It was mentioned before that she will be getting her etiquette lessons for a week with his cousin Andromeda Tonks nee Black, along with her daughter and that will be starting from the next week, so there was almost no reason for her to be called. With these thoughts, she went to the sitting hall, only to find it empty. Hoping that this was not a prank as she got to know her godfather was prone to playing pranks; when he turned her hair pink one morning; she entered the empty if overly decorated room, only to be startled when she heard a chorus of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY BELLE." She was shocked into silence, mind overflowing with the only memory in which her birthday was celebrated, but it was not a fond memory, as the person in the memory is the one she hates with all her being. She forcibly pushed away those thoughts again, as ever since she decided to give Sirius a chance to trust, she was being reminded of him over and over again.

Sirius saw her dazed look and filed that away as 'things to note about his little Belle,' seriously, the list was pretty long as of now. He decided to bring her out of her stupor and introduced her to his immediate family, and her guests as of now. He noted that despite her surprise, she did not dislike the arrangement, and was pleased with it. He introduced her to his relatives, Aunt Cassiopeia, known as the lady of secrets to all Blacks, cousin Andy and her family, who were invited back to the family once he took over the lordship. All the other Blacks were either dead, incarcerated or not immediate family in his opinion. He was not planning to introduce her to the Malfoys right away, as they were not politically on the same side. He did not know whether she would be able to make a good impression or not with those who actually matter to him, especially with his aunt Cassiopeia. Lunch was served as a buffet and he introduced her to Andromeda and her daughter first. They were getting along quite well, so he decided to speak with his cousin as he needed a political advice. Though he obtained the lordship, he was no political genius like his late brother and Cousin Andy, Narcissa was no slouch either, but she was not immediate family. He was engrossed in the discussion after applying a muffling charm and did not notice his aunt Cassiopeia approaching Belle. He knew that she wanted to test Belle herself before approving his decision, and she also held the right to veto his decision should she find her unsuitable for the position of heiress. So he waited with a held breath, witnessing the meeting. He noted that her aunt spoke something to her and she stiffened suddenly. Deciding to help her over, he went there only to hear the end of the conversation.

"... just because you have that skill doesn't mean you will be a good Black heiress, Oh, Sirius, how are you?"

"I am fine, Aunt Cassiopeia, what were you discussing with my heiress?" he asked her coldly, she had no business scaring his goddaughter like that, and from her smug and proud look, she got quite a few secrets from Belle. He was surprised to see approval in her eyes, just for a very short moment that he thought he imagined it, as she told him "I understand, Lord Black, but you should know that she will need to learn many things if she wishes to uphold the standards of her predecessors, as you very well know. I shall take my leave for now."

"Oh, don't you worry Lady Cassiopeia, I always exceed expectations as you have already witnessed, have a good day," he heard Belle tell his aunt, in a challenging tone. He did not understand the entire details, but was surprised to see his aunt giving a very mild approval towards her, though she did not show it openly; his aunt had a funny way of showing her approval. "So, she would be taking a stance of wait and watch," he thought to himself, "that was unusual even for his aunt as she is usually very vocal about her disapproval if she has any."

The rest of the party went without any hitch, his cousin absolutely adored Belle and Andy's daughter, Nymphadora, a seventh year, also thought she was cool. They were talking animatedly, Dora was answering all the questions his Belle had about Hogwarts, and that was a really long list. He was glad that she was at least able to enjoy her birthday to an extent.

Belladonna was tired at the end of the day. She still did not understand how that battered old lady was able to collect that much information on her from a single glance, and it did not bode well for her, as she had no knowledge on her while this old lady knows too much. She cursed herself for all the mistakes she made that day, ruthlessly pointed out by that old lady. She vowed to herself to collect blackmail material on her as soon as possible, as that would be necessary if she wished for independent action. She saw Sirius coming close to her to talk, and stopped asking her questions to Tonks (Nymphadora- don't call me Nymphadora- Tonks, just Tonks) and thanked him for such a wonderful party. He asked her "Did you like the party? I did not know what you actually like, so I only arranged for a small party. Sorry for that trouble with Aunt Cassiopeia, I did not expect her to make small talk like that-"

"-Sirius, thank you for the party, and no need to apologize, she only mentioned some of my skills and drawbacks, I was planning to inform them to you for the past few days and I will rectify them as soon as possible..."

"Only if you actually wish to inform me your secrets. I stand by my promise. Also, I would like to apologize for whatever my aunt told you. She was the lady of secrets, you might not know this, but that is a real title. I cannot inform anything other than that as even I don't know much about her. It is her business to have blackmail details on absolutely everyone." He could notice her relief on his statement of not prying into her secrets.

"This includes allies as well?"

"Indeed," he said dryly. He noted that she was happy and had the same glint in her eyes as that of James, when he was about to play a good prank. "That definitely meant someone's doomsday, more than likely his aunt's" he thought. He considered her for a moment, eyes conveying the message that she can trust him and called it a day. It was indeed a very tiring day.

* * *

**5****th**** August 1991, Black Manor**

Lucius did not know why his family was so suddenly invited to the Black manor. His marriage to Narcissa was a political alliance and after Sirius took the mantle of Lord Black, they were not able to rely on the Blacks much, as they became political opponents. Sirius vehemently rejected the advances of both conservatives and liberals and stayed on the neutral side, mainly supporting the Houses of Greengrass, Falken and Lýkos. The Malfoire House, their main French house, did not give them the required footing in Britain, which was the main reason he joined the Dark Lord, in order to get the required political power. Currently, their house was an Ancient and Noble House, as opposed to the Black's Most Noble status, obtained when they opposed the worst of dark lords starting from Herpo the foul to Grindelwald, though they were considerably dark themselves. Only during the reign of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named they supported the dark side, The Blacks were predominantly traditionalists. The Most Noble status ensures a right to veto under certain conditions in the wizengamont, obtained when a house as a whole renders services to the country during crisis, while the most Ancient status ensures a right to advice, or put forward a law without any secondary support, only honoring the fact that they existed for a millennium. Within two more years, the House of Black would be elevated to this status according to his wife, so he had been thinking of different ways to gain favor with the Lord Black, as it would be beneficial to him.

Now, here he was, with his wife, in the Black Manor, waiting for Sirius with a baited breath. He was only sent a missive that the Malfoy family was invited to have lunch with the Black family; he did not understand what he meant by family, as he knew Sirius was single, and has been so for a while, despite the efforts of his wife and Andromeda, known as the estranged Black in social circles. So, he was properly shocked to see a girl reminding him of Bellatrix minus the insanity, when she was a child, inviting him into the Black Manor. He was even more surprised when she introduced herself as Belladonna Potter, the Black Heiress. He properly kissed the air at back of her knuckles as tradition demanded and she invited them into the manor. "So, this is the reason Sirius did not cower when I mentioned that in case of his death, the seat of Blacks shall be inherited by Draco," he thought to himself, all the while observing the girl's behaviour. Heiress Black, he noted, was playing her part of the perfect hostess, making small talk with his wife about their affairs, like inquiring the health of their abraxans, which was not a well known fact in many circles. He was surprised when the conversation drifted to politics, inquiring his stance on politics, not in the said words but with a subtlety that spoke of experience. Deciding that it was time to interfere, he spoke to her, "Miss Potter..." only to be interrupted by Sirius Black, who decided the very moment to interfere, by welcoming them into the study, where they could discuss 'official matters.' This entire invitation now seemed like a trap to him, but there was nothing he could do but appreciate the intricacy of the meeting.

Belladonna was tasked with the duty of escorting the Malfoys to the Lord's study as an assignment by Andromeda, a part of her Heiress lessons. She arrived at the gates of the manor, in an emerald one-piece dress, covered with a gold threaded sea green cloak, meant to invite and entertain guests. She easily fell into an impassive face with a polite smile, and spoke to Lord Malfoy first, as decorum demanded of her, "Greetings Lord Malfoy. I am Belladonna Potter, Heiress to the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Please allow me to escort you and cousin Narcissa to the Lord Black, he has been awaiting your arrival." She was pleased to register the shock in Lucius' face and the recognition in Narcissa's face. She decided to speak to Narcissa as she seemed to be a better conversationalist, and was not disappointed as Narcissa, despite her appearance as a pure blood prized wife, was a force to reckon with in politics and the only reason she was married to Lucius instead of taking over the place of the Lady of Secrets from Cassiopeia was because of a long standing agreement between their houses. She inquired the stance of House of Malfoy regarding blood supremacy by including a few muggle phrases in her conversation and was pleased to note that despite their intense_ dislike _ towards anything muggle, at least Narcissa was okay with muggleborns as long as they did not endanger the statute of secrecy. By the time Lucius wanted to correct her 'assumption', she was already close to the study where his response was stopped by Sirius. She noted that he clearly heard their arrival and that was the reason behind his interruption.

Sirius heard the entire conversation Belle had with Lucy dear. Yes, that's what he called Lord Malfoy in the recesses of his mind, it was very hilarious and also describes his damned interest in hair care, something no man ever usually has. Err... Back to the point, he invited Lord Malfoy into his study. The main reason for today's invitation was to introduce Belle and to ensure that the Malfoy supported her as his heiress, unwillingly. He was ready to bargain as required for this purpose. So, after their initial introductions, and inquiring the health of his cousin and making small talk about Malfoy business, they dealt mainly with artifacts and potion materials of animals, he spoke to Lucius, addressing the elephant in the room as Belle said earlier.

"Lord Malfoy, may I call you Lucius? I would assume I have your permission and proceed with the current discussion. I have no need for nicetes today, and as you have already suspected, this is not a social call. I wish to name Belle as my heiress, and I would like it if the House of Malfoy can keep this a secret. I know that I am fully capable of preventing you from leaking this information in any way; as cousin Narcissa no doubt should have informed you, we blacks deal with secrets as you know, and this will be falling under the Black family secrets." All his words were pre-planned, an indirect snub at him by not waiting for permission to use his given name in official conversation, straight to the point to prevent any denial of knowledge, and slight warning not to leak it, but not extremely intense to the point where it can be considered a slight against the House of Malfoy.

"Lord Black, as you already know, My son Draco has a higher claim to the heirship, he is a son of House Black, unlike your appointed heiress, she is a granddaughter of black, not to mention her mother is a... Muggleborn," he spoke the word Muggleborn with as much derision as he could. Of course dear old Lucy did not like muggleborns and it was true that the Black family did not accept half bloods as heirs, but given Lily was a witch, that clause could be overwritten easily enough, Sirius thought to himself, but showed no outward change in his expression. He knew that he had to time this very accurately, just before the next wizengamont meeting which would occur in October. He needed the Malfoys on his side unwillingly for his plot to unfold properly. He was proud of his Belle, she was the one to suggest the idea when Andy posed this as a hypothetical problem, to pool in for solutions for the very real problem he was facing, and he had the solution. Her mind was a real wonder to behold, he really wanted to dismantle her brain to check it's functioning if these were the sort of plots she can come up with without any notice beforehand. So, he spoke to Malfoy, his words dripping with honey, yet laced with the undertones of venom, "That is indeed true, Lord Malfoy, but Belle here is my blood adopted daughter, not to mention my God daughter. She is not responsible for the House of Potter as she is the younger daughter, meaning she is eligible for the heirship, as she is from the direct line as compared to your son who is not form the direct line. The very same reason why Andy's daughter is not eligible, but that is not the point of discussion now. It depends on whom the heirship ring chooses when both of them have their second majority and their sympathy with the Black family magic."

"Indeed," replied Lucius in a tight voice. He did not like the direction of this conversation, also as he needed the help of House Black, he cannot directly snub the Lord. From the looks of the situation, he will be asked to sign a secrecy contract, the ones House of Black are famous for. Just as he expected, Sirius proposed a secrecy contract, only with few loopholes he noticed on reading it multiple times. He can not inform anyone not in on the secret about the fact that Belladonna Potter is the heiress of House of Black, in any way, but the contract did not include his wife or any method of informing the same without his knowledge, something he can easily overcome. He noticed that Sirius was looking at Belladonna Potter for the contract, implying that it was prepared by her. "So, despite her strong magic, she is not smart enough to create an ironclad contract," was what he thought to himself and signed the contract, with every intention of letting the secret out once he gets the chance. He did not notice the subtle looks shared by both the Lord and Heiress Black when the magic of the contract settled and he had an impassive mask. After the main event was over, they proceeded stop have some more small talk and then had lunch. The entire affair was filled with tension in the later part, which was broken when Belle interfered and spoke to Narcissa about different magical creatures, their habitats and uses, creating a semblance of peace when she was praised for her knowledge, it was on par with a third year student studying CoMC as an elective. Once the Malfoys left, Belle felt relaxed, and asked Andy who was watching the entire affair from a distance, "So, how was my performance? "

"I would say, good enough. I have a feeling this is not the first time you did something like this... Am I correct? "

"You are, but I don't think I need to mention that, do I Cousin Andy?"

"Indeed. Overly formal again Belle, didn't I mention no need for formalities between immediate family? You should know where to be formal and where being formal comes off as rude. Anyways, shall I take my leave, Sirius? This little Belle of yours does not need any more teaching, she is good. " Andromeda asked Sirius. She first thought that she would be teaching an innocent little girl the intricacies of politics, something she did not like as it reminded her too much of the overly formal restrictions in her childhood and the very reason she did not teach her Dora anything, but after one lesson, she was certain that this little girl was not ignorant in any way. She was able to maintain the disinterested face and controlled expressions easily enough. Though it was difficult to bring out, she found that the child can speak words with hidden barbs very well, as though she had years of practice with only thing she actually had to teach was the manners and customs of a heiress. All in all, she considered Belle as a dangerous individual if she wished to be so, but equally protective of her comrades, a picture perfect Black, if she had to name one.

Belle found the entire 'learn-how-to-be-a-perfect-heiress' lessons very annoying if the manners lessons were to be excluded. She was briefed on the political stance of the houses which have seat in Wizengamont, the differences in political policies, the liberals, the neutrals and the conservatives, the political stance of House of Black, past and present, the names of heirs and heiresses, different wizengamont trials and so many things she can actually read by herself. So, she was more than happy when she was given an option of being excused for all the lessons on behavior and only take lessons on family magic from Sirius if she could give a proper solution to a situation Andy would be mentioning. What she did not expect was for her idea (answer) to be used real time to reintroduce her to the wizarding world. The fact that someone thought her to be worth it made her feel happy. Then and there, she decided that the House of Black is included under the wing of Nightshade, and she would of whatever she could to protect what or who were hers as long as the person did not betray her. Now, she was eagerly waiting for the magic lessons she was promised, all the while reading her books, after all, she had to catch up with the bigoted people and she had no intention of coming off as weak in front of them in the school.

Sirius, after bidding goodbye to his cousin Andy, went to his heiress. He was quite pleased with how they were enable to fool Lucius, but he did not want to teach Belle the family magic right away as she was not old enough in his opinion. He knew that he at least owed her a presentation. So, he told her that he would only show her the family magic and she would practise it next year. The Black family magic was bass on secret keeping and contracts, something very unique. It mainly focused on holding a secret you own, within a person, parchment or place. He can show her how to hold a secret on a parchment, but definitely not the person or place part as they need the involving people to have a perfect occlumency.

When Sirius showed her the family magic, Belle was properly surprised as that was very similar to how she created her contracts. Imbuing a paper with magic and then stating the secret right away before the creation of contract, unlike her contracts where she created a contract first and then imbued the secret. She wanted to show her skill right away, but decided against it, and instead pulled her face in a properly astonished expression. She now got to know where wishes got her skills from, more than likely her talent with secrecy contracts is a Black family skill.

Thus, all her summer was spent knowing more about traditions and family magic, with some minimal politics. In the midst of all this, she forgot even asking about her birth parents and her sister, the great 'girl who lived,' hence she did not know how they even look like.

* * *

**1****st**** September 1991, Kings Cross Station**

"Dad, you don't need to worry about me. I'll be fine," Belle saw a redhead winking at her father, surrounded by a few more people. She felt a deep longing on seeing that, but she knew that she would never be able to forgive her father for what he did to her, so she squashed her feelings with a practised ease. She slowly approached the train with her trunk and lifted it off the platform with the levitation spell before anyone else can see her performing magic. Sirius did not tag along as a human to drop her as it was not possible for them to declare the fact that she was heiress Black so openly. Instead, she had the company of a shaggy black dog, close to a grim with her, wagging it's tail and acting sillily. She found his antics funny (Sirius did not register his animagus form, the only one who can do so was James). She told him that she will be leaving and he can leave the station, before anyone can notice him. She noticed Lord Malfoy speaking to a similar looking mini Malfoy, his son Draco Malfoy probably, she thought; and Neville Longbottom being dropped with his grandmother and another old man. She also saw a horde of redheads, hurrying into the station at the last moment, placing all their trunks in the train just before either struck eleven. She sat in her compartment all by herself, without magically locking it so that if anyone else tries stop enter her compartment, it would be possible but latching it so that entrance would be possible only when someone knocked. She was busy reading her parseltongue book, charmed so that if anyone tried to see it, it would appear as a normal charms textbook, when someone knocked the door. She opened it to see a boy with the strangest hair colour she has ever seen, it was a shade of grey, with white and black streaks at some places. He had amber yellow eyes, with black pupils. In his Hogwarts robes, he seemed very elegant. He introduced himself as Flynn Lýkos. She introduced herself, without giving her title or full name as his introduction was not official. He just raised an eyebrow at this and politely inquired her surname. "Well, that would be telling, wouldn't it?" she replied sweetly, indicating that he did not introduce himself officially either. He just shrugged and went back to reading his book. She merely sighed and continued with her book. She got to know that when spells were used in parseltongue their efficiency gets somewhere between doubled to quadrupled, especially healing spells.

So engrossed in her book, she did not notice a bushy haired girl entering their compartment without knocking which was mannerless. Felling angry with herself for not locking the room again, she immediately decided to latch the door herself next time. The girl who entered the room introduced herself as Hermione Granger and asked if any of them had seen a toad Neville lost. Given she knew Neville herself, she suggested her to go to an older student who knows the summoning charm to help him. She could not resist adding a barb that it was not polite to enter without knocking like she did. The girl then looked sheepish enough and continued babbling about how she was the first witch in her family and she memorized everything from her textbooks. "Thank you for giving away the fact that you have an eidetic memory," she thought to herself, and decided to point out that she was babbling again. Hermione acted as though she did not notice it and prattled on and on, about the school houses, and she considered Griffindor her favourite at which Belle again had to mention that every house has it's own history and you don't choose your houses, you are placed in them based on your personality, charecterestics and decisions you would like to take. The girl looked pensive when she was leaving the compartment, indicating that she had indeed given her something to think about. "She would be either a Griffindor or a Ravenclaw," she heard Flynn speaking and looked up from her book again. He was clearly waiting for her opinion on this. She knew that if she were to mention the fact that she was the heiress to Black House, he would have no other option but to consider her words, but she did not want to gain her weight just with her name, she wanted Belladonna recognized, not Heiress Potter or Black. So, she merely inclined her head in agreement and voiced her opinion, "So, where would you like to be? " He looked thoughtful and replied in the same guarded tone as her, "I don't mind which school house I would be in, what I care about is who my friends are," a clear indication that he wanted to keep his options open as she exhibited her intelligence earlier. She just hummed in agreement and patted Atropa who was in her sleeves. She still remembered the way she was forced to rely on Atropa on her birthday party.

_Her birthday party has a small cake which she cut and then a small lunch but it was clear that the main reason for the party was only to introduce her to the immediate Black family. She was making small talk with Nymphadora Tonks(call me just Tonks), Sirius' cousin when Lady Cassiopeia suddenly appeared before her from the behind and started talking to her about many random things, something she clearly noted was a way to keep the conversation in her control as it was a technique she used frequently enough. Suddenly, she found herself at wand point, something which was considered extremely rude according to the books she studied till the day. She tried to draw her wand but was reminded that her wand holster was in the library. When she saw that she was about to get cursed, she immediately hissed to Atropa, "Ssscare her, don't bite " The old lady saw her snake and outright laughed, before pointing the wand at Atropa and warning her to call her off unless she wished for something bad to happen. She said, "So the little Rose has her thorns, Huh? I can see that you were not raised as a heiress but you are capable enough. Parseltongue, not bad, but the fact that you did not draw your wand right away, yet you tried to incapacitate me, that was an unwise decision. I shall test your skills before I agree with Sirius' decision. Just so you know, I am not opposed to your appointment but I don't support you either."_

_"Lady Cassiopeia, why do I get the feeling that had I not been a parselmouth, I would have been scorned by you?" she asked warily, trying to come up with proper escape plans and failing to find any, all the while delaying her. _

_"That means you are insightful, dearie, I do not like it when someone who is not raised a Black, someone who knows not the importance of constant vigilance, is appointed as the Heiress. Currently you are the best option our house has, that I shall admit but you __should know that __just because you have that skill doesn't mean you will be a good Black heiress, Oh, Sirius, how are you?__" she was interrupted by Sirius at that very moment. She did not let him hear anything compromising yet warned her that she did not approve her as of now. That was an eye opener to her. The fact that even children carry a weapon, a weapon when used properly can kill, was clearly understood and from that day forth, she put more emphasis on practical than theory, her usual way of doing things before what she dubbed as the 'Cassiopeia Incident.' Especially on wand drawing as she saw the advantage she can hold due to a quick draw in a fight. _

She was lost in her thoughts so did not notice when there was another knock on her door. This time, Draco Malfoy entered the room and rather pompously introduced himself to Lýkos, all the while looking at her with derision. She decided that Malfoy was not smart enough to notice her attire, though it was not oozing richness as Malfoy's was, it was quite pricey. Nevertheless she was shocked mildly when Lýkos pointed out that he did not greet her as well. A heir or heiress calling out on another heir for not introducing himself to someone was to mean that he considered the someone as his ally and it was impolite to snub any further. She did not expect a power play this early in the game, so she subtly showed her heiress ring to Malfoy when Lýkos was not looking, binding Malfoy to shut his mouth and introduced herself without giving her name. She told them that they would get to know her name during sorting, so they might as well wait for a while. Malfoy left the compartment after his introduction, saying that he was searching for Heiress Potter, the girl who lived, her twin whom she did not even meet. She fell in deep thoughts about the houses again, when she was reminded of her twin.

She knew fully well that she would not be a Griffindor despite her tendencies towards adventures, and she held no loyalty, that part of her was squashed brutally in her childhood, so Hufflepuff was out. It was a choice between Ravenclaw and Slytherin and she did not mind either of them. She only wanted to get to know the wonders of magic before deciding whether or not she could extend her plans here, for she swore her vengeance against **him** from the day she was betrayed and she did not intend to leave it be. That was an anger which could never be calmed and a thirst that could never be sated.

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**So, what's your opinion people? Just finished typing this chapter on my mobile phone as my laptop is damaged. COVID 19 isolation means I won't be able to get it repaired, so if you find any spelling errors, please bring it to my notice. **


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